Who Are You Again?
by Melted-icicle
Summary: Harry Potter gets a present for his birthday - a sister named Dawn. But there's nothing unusual about that, he's always had a sister. So how come people are treating her so weird?
1. Chapter One

"GET DOWN HERE, BOY!" 

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry Potter looked over to the corner of the room where his owl Hedwig sat. She had been locked in her cage all summer, except for once every three days when she carried Harry's letter to the Order. "Look lively, you get to go on a trip today."

You see, members of the Order of the Phoenix, the anti-Voldemort group, had visited King's Cross Station at the end of last year. They meant well, threatening the Dursleys that if Harry was being mistreated in any way they would come to the house and do God only knows what. Of course Uncle Vernon couldn't have that. The farther away those people were the better in his opinion. So, because they had said they would come by if they didn't hear from Harry for three days, Vernon Dursley was obsessed with Harry's letters. Like clockwork, the morning of every third day Vernon demanded to read Harry's correspondence with those freaks and approve each letter before it was sent.

"Hand it over, boy. I haven't got all day." He snatched the letter from Harry's hand as soon as it was in reach and began skimming it over. Harry was used to this by now, If there was anything in the letters Uncle Vernon didn't like, or didn't understand, he was forced to write another one, the original ripped and mutilated before being tossed into the fireplace. "This will have to do. Go get that infernal bird of yours. Go!"

Harry worked his way back up the stairs and took Hedwig's cage off her stand. He brought the entire thing down so that Uncle Vernon could unlock the cage and Harry could send Hedwig on her way. As Hedwig bounded out of the cage and stretched her wings Harry opened the window. He took his parchment back from his uncle and tied it securely to the Snowy's leg, then lifted her into the air and said, "To Remus Lupin. London." He heard Vernon Dursley's gruff voice behind him.

"To your room with you. You know the drill." Vernon chuckled, pleased with his pun. He did work for Grunning's Drill Company after all. Harry knew what he had to do. Every three days he gave his owl her freedom. Every three days he gave up his own. It was ironic really; Hedwig got to leave her cage, but Harry had to enter his. The bars were back on the windows, the locks changed, and the door reinforced. Until Hedwig returned Harry's only contact with the outside world would be through the tiny little cat-flap on the door. This was where he got his lunch, and if the owl took her time, his dinner as well.

"I won't have that owl delivering secret messages while I'm not around. Into your room boy, now!" Uncle Vernon didn't need to shout, but it seemed to make him happy to do so, and Harry would get another earful if he pointed that out. So, Harry trudged up the stairs and through his bedroom door which was quickly locked behind him.

Harry hated being alone there. He was always by himself in the summers, that wasn't what bothered him. What bothered him was being alone in that bedroom with nothing to do. While he was free he could walk the streets, nick newspapers out of bins, or explore the neighborhood. He had even started visiting Mrs. Figg occasionally to keep up on the wizard news. Alone in his room, however, there was nothing to distract him. His school things were locked in his trunk, which was locked under the stairs. He had managed to save a few things and hid them under the floorboard, but his Firebolt and the majority of his wizard things were still under the stairs.

Harry lay down on his bed, then, trying to distract himself, got right back up again and removed the loose floorboard. That didn't keep him occupied long. All of his homework he had already finished he smiled, thinking of Hermione and how proud she would be and the rest of the things there didn't hold his interest. He lay back down on his bed and removed his glasses, thinking he could nap until Hedwig got back, but sleep didn't find him and his thoughts turned once more to Sirius.

This was why he hated being alone here. Out there he could keep himself busy, but in his room he couldn't escape his thoughts. Sirius' last moments were etched into his mind. The Department of Mysteries, the veil, Bellatrix Lestrange… He hadn't known Sirius very long, but they grown incredibly close. Molly Weasley said Sirius couldn't separate Harry from James, and she was probably right, but for Harry- Sirius was his only link to his father and his family. That wasn't completely true, there was still Professor Lupin- Mister Lupin. Harry still had trouble thinking of him as anything other than professor and there was a stiff formality between the two that had never been there with Sirius.

From the first night they had met Harry could understand why Sirius and his father had been such good friends. He was intensely loyal, brave, and a lot of fun. He may have come from a pure-blood family but Sirius was a Gryffindor. He made the choice to believe in what he thought was right and not what his family had told him was right. Harry was reminded of the choice he made to enter Gryffindor when the Sorting Hat wanted to put him into Slytherin and he felt more connected to his godfather than ever.

Harry was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of the bolt being opened on the cat door. Aunt Petunia's bony hand came through the door holding a plate of stale bread crusts, a daub of peanut butter, and a small slab of old cheese. There wasn't even water to wash them down with. Harry ate his meager lunch slowly, while imagining things like Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizzbees, and Lemon Drops.

Lemon Drops reminded him of Dumbledore, and Harry still had a lot of anger toward the old man. He knew Dumbledore was looking out for Harry's best interest, but he had been betrayed. And because of that betrayal, and his foolishness, Sirius had died. How many other things was Dumbledore hiding from him? How many more people would have to die before this was all over? How many would be because of what Harry did? Harry lay his empty plate in front of the door and went back to his bed.

Like they so often did when he was thinking of Sirius his thoughts lingered on Bellatrix Lestrange. Even though Harry blamed himself, and Dumbledore, for the events leading to Sirius' death, Lestrange was the one who had sent the final curse that knocked him into the veil. Harry spent much of his time alone plotting revenge fantasies and he saw all kinds of things in his mind's eye. Bellatrix Lestrange chained to the wall, hanging by her thumbs in Filch's dungeon. Bellatrix Lestrange writhing in the pain of a thousand Gubraithian fires. Bellatrix Lestrange with cuts on every part of her body, hurting, causing pain, but no blood. There couldn't be blood, because then she might die. Death was too good for her. She needed pain. She needed to suffer. She needed to feel the hurts she had caused, not only him, but countless others. His fantasies sometimes included Neville Longbottom who, truth be told, deserved revenge just as much as he did. Neville Longbottom casting the Cruciatus again and again as Bellatrix lost more of her mind, piece by piece. Neville Longbottom taking justice from her flesh, bit by bit, cut by cut, until there was no flesh left to take. The two of them together exacting revenge… tap, tap, tap.

Harry was brought out of his daydreams by a light rapping on the window. Hedwig was back. "You're back early today. You have to go downstairs, I can't let you in this way." Hedwig looked at Harry in disdain then flew off around to the front of the house. Harry was worried, Hedwig usually didn't come home so quickly. She took her time and enjoyed what little freedom she had. Even knowing he would be let out soon did little to quell his fears that something wasn't quite right.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs and listened as they paused outside his bedroom door. Harry heard the key fumble in the lock and then the door was pushed open. Dudley stuck his fat blond head around the corner. "Hi cousin, your owl's back. I suppose you're to be let out now." Dudley didn't look at all happy about this as he turned back into the hallway. Harry followed him out, pausing to wonder at how civil Dudley was being. Just as this thought entered his mind he felt Dudley's monster foot under his and then he lost his balance. _I should have known_, Harry thought as he tumbled down the stairs. He landed on his back at the bottom of the stairs and opened his eyes to see Vernon's red face and pompous, overgrown moustache.

"Be careful, boy! You could have broken one of your aunt's pictures!"

_Or my neck_, thought Harry as he shot a glare at Uncle Vernon's back. Harry looked to the top of the stairs and saw Dudley doing a poor job of stifling his laughter. Harry was quickly losing his temper and tried to keep his anger in check. He knew he had difficulty controlling his emotions when he was around the Dursleys; he felt like he was constantly being tested. Harry turned back to the window and waited for Uncle Vernon to take the letter and put Hedwig back in her cage. Harry was then allowed to carry her into his room.

Dudley had gone from the stairs, which suited Harry well, and he made it to his bedroom without event. He placed Hedwig's cage back on her stand, and after giving her some treats he turned to leave, but when he got to the hallway Hedwig gave a low mournful cry. Harry turned to look at her. Nothing seemed broken and her feathers weren't ruffled, so there didn't seem to be any trauma. Harry knew Uncle Vernon checked the owl for incoming messages and he had been rough with her before, but that didn't seem to be the issue this time. Harry gave the owl a quizzical look and she hooted in that lowly manner again. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Her unusual behavior ceased.

"Is that what you wanted? Me to shut the door?" asked Harry. Hedwig cooed softly, signifying she was happy. She then stretched her leg out and held up one wing.

There, under her wing, behind the leg and in front of the tail, was a small piece of parchment. Harry was excited. He figured his friends had been writing to him, but that Uncle Vernon had intercepted the letters. He finally was going to hear from his friends. Harry unwrapped the parchment carefully, sticking his fingers through the bars of the cage, and pulled it out slowly. He gave Hedwig an extra helping of owl treats in gratitude and pulled one of Dudley's old astronomy books off the bookshelf. He hid the letter inside the book and then opened his door. The Dursley's would be suspicious if the door was shut too long and Harry couldn't let them know he had a letter.

He sat down with his back against the wall and propped the book up on his knees. He opened to the page that hid the letter and, looking up to check the coast was clear, unfolded the letter and placed it neatly between the two pages. If one of the Dursley's walked by it would look like he was simply reading the book, from the hallway there was no way to see the letter hidden inside. The letter was from Ron and Harry began to read it, savoring each and every letter on the page.

**July 30th**

**Hi Harry,**

**I don't think you got my last few letters. I tried sending them on Hedwig, but maybe they're not getting to you. Hope you find this okay. You-Know-Who is being quiet again. We don't know what he's up to, but Dumbledore's working on it and he says not to worry. Hermione's worried about you, says you're in trouble. She says your letters are being searched and that's why you won't write anything in them. I said "He's fine. He'd tell us if he wasn't," but I promised to get a letter to you somehow. Just in case Hermione's right -I don't think she is- I tied this letter to Hedwig's tail. Hope you find it easy enough.**

**Dumbledore won't let us come get you yet. We all want to, but Dumbledore said he "has his reasons." We'll come get you as soon as we can. I'm not going to wait much longer for that old man. Write back to us and if you have to, do what I did and tie it under to her tail.**

**Bye Harry,  
Ron**

Harry was glad Hermione at least figured it out. He silently gave thanks that Ron had actually come up with the idea of hiding a letter in her tail. Who knew that Ron could be clever? He reread the letter, and was still angry that Dumbledore wouldn't let him leave. He knew Dumbledore's reasoning, but still didn't feel it was necessary. Voldemort had tried to kill him several times now and Harry had survived each one. The blood bond protection he gained by living with Petunia didn't seem like much to him. Especially since Voldemort had used Harry's blood to acquire his new body two years ago and was immune to it now. He would much rather be at Headquarters with his friends than on Privet Drive with the Dursleys, even if he was safer here.

Harry went back downstairs for dinner, avoiding and ignoring the Dursleys as much as possible. Dinner was a better meal than his lunch and consisted of potatoes, roast beef and carrots and of course he had plenty of water to wash it down with. He was only allowed water from the tap, but still it was better than what he was provided while he was locked in his room. He even got to have seconds on the roast beef when Dudley decided he didn't want to finish his 5th helping. All through dinner Harry's mind was on his letter upstairs and he couldn't wait to get back upstairs to go through it again.

After dinner Harry excused himself and went back to his room. Funny, he thought, how he would have given anything to be able to leave this room earlier today, but now that was where he wanted to be. Harry got out the old astronomy book and began to re-read his letter but stopped quickly. He glanced at the date. July 30th. Why was that date familiar? Harry pulled out his calendar. It wasn't a holiday. So why? Then he remembered. Tomorrow was the 31st. His sixteenth birthday.

Birthdays were nothing special to Harry, but he hoped to at least hear from Ron and Hermione and maybe get a visit from the Order. They had said they would stop by. So with his mind on happy thoughts for once he lay down and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Harry Potter woke the next morning to the sound of the alarm clock. Harry glanced down to the clock below and cried aloud, "Dawn, why did you set the alarm for 5:15?"

"Because I wanted to be the first to wish you Happy Birthday, Harry." Dawn replied from below. Harry always had the top bunk. When they were younger Dawn was afraid of heights and he graciously let her have the bottom bunk. Granted, when they were sharing the cupboard under the stairs it was the thin, cramped top shelf, but still. "Happy Birthday Harry." Why was Dawn always so chipper in the morning?

"Thanks, now turn that stupid thing off!" It was times like these Harry Potter wished he was an only child. He rolled over and pressed his face against the wall trying to shut out the light. That worked for that, but he couldn't block out the sounds of the sparrows outside. He lay still awhile, then got angry at the birds, then angry at Dawn. It was his sister's fault he was awake now anyway. Harry gave into his frustration and pulled himself out of bed, climbing carefully down the ladder before pulling open the window shade. The light hit Dawn square between the eyes and she winced at the unwelcome brightness.

"What are you doing, Harry? I wanted to get some more sleep."

"Yeah, well, so did I. You woke me up first." Harry was obviously angry again. Dawn tried to calm him before he woke their aunt and uncle.

"I wanted to be nice, you know. It's not everyday my big brother turns sixteen." Dawn said this very calmly, hoping Harry would get the hint. He didn't.

"You're the only one that notices anyway. Nobody else gives a damn." Harry was touchy at the best of times; he was a downright bear when he didn't get enough sleep.

"That's not true. You've got Ron and Hermione, and even Hagrid sends you something every year. And don't swear. Aunt Petunia will wash your mouth out with soap." Mentioning their aunt seemed to get through to Harry and he lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Fine. Just don't wake me this early, again, ever." Harry thought he would appeal to Dawn's common sense. "I'm not my best when I don't get enough sleep."

"You do just fine at Hogwarts," Dawn pointed out.

"That's different. I like it there." Dawn couldn't help but feel hurt. She thought she was important to him, too. And even though Hogwarts was her home as much as it was Harry's, Dawn liked their summers together, just the two of them. It made her nostalgic for the times when they were growing up and it was just the Potter siblings against the world.

"You don't like it here?" she asked.

"Of course not, you know that!" Harry said with indignation. "If you weren't here to talk to I'd have gone crazy by now." Harry meant that, too. He couldn't imagine how his life would have turned out if he didn't have his little sister to rely on when he wasn't away at school.

"Don't forget that," Dawn said in a mock angry voice, slightly mollified that Harry admitted enjoying her company.

* * *

Harry and Dawn Potter spent the rest of the morning doing their chores and preparing for the Dursley's to wake up. It always made Vernon especially happy to find his favorite shirt pressed and starched, and when he came to the breakfast table his plate was already laid out before him- not too hot and not too cold, but just the way he liked it. Petunia was thrilled she didn't need to make breakfast, although she complained the orange juice was too thick and the eggs were too runny. She had to find something to complain about since it was the Potter kids that made it. As Harry had guessed the Dursley's didn't acknowledge his birthday or say anything nice to him, but Uncle Vernon was in a rare good mood so Harry decided to ask him a question.

"Uncle Vernon. Can I send Hedwig with another letter today?" Harry continued before Vernon could interrupt. "It's just that I forgot to ask when they're going to pick us up. My friend Ron said that Dawn and I could stay at his house for a while this summer." Harry liked putting Uncle Vernon in these situations. He knew that Vernon would be extremely happy to get the Potter children out of his house, but he would be just as happy to deny them something they wanted. Uncle Vernon eyed Harry carefully.

"And why can't it wait two days?"

Harry answered quickly, "I was just wanted to know when we could leave is all." Dawn tried to warn him with her eyes, but it was too late. Vernon had seen her warning.

"No. You can wait, boy. They won't be getting you any time soon. Nobody wants you and your runt sister. God only knows what we were thinking when we took you two in." Harry was disappointed, but let Vernon finish his tirade. After breakfast he avoided Dudley and went up to his room to be alone. It didn't work as Dawn came up soon after. She closed the door behind her.

"Hey, Harry," she tried. He didn't respond. "Come look at this." Harry climbed down from his bunk and went to look. It was easier than arguing with her. Harry watched as Dawn opened the window and pushed up the screen. The bars were still in the way, though and there's no way Hedwig could fit through there.

"Look closely, Harry. I found it this morning." Harry didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"What? I don't get it." Harry continued looking at the window dumbly.

"You can be so clueless sometimes." Dawn pointed to a small gap between the paneling and the window. Harry started to get an idea of what his sister was so excited about. He watched as Dawn pulled the paneling straight off the wall, revealing a gap easily large enough for Hedwig. Harry even thought he could fit through it himself if he needed to.

"Dawn, that's amazing!" Harry was thrilled with the discovery. "Wow! I'm so jealous." Harry had thought about looking for things like that before, but had never taken the time to actually try them, thinking there would be no way the Dursley's would leave something that obvious. He reminded himself to give thanks for shoddy construction. He turned to look at his sister and saw her big smile- the one he didn't see often enough. He gave her a quick hug and said, "This is the best birthday present ever."

It didn't take long for Harry to write a quick letter to Ron and Ginny. In it he detailed how the Dursleys had been treating the Potter children and how they had been reading his letters as well. He then told them how Dawn had figured out a way to sneak Hedwig out the window. He was quite proud of his little sister and didn't mind showing it off. Harry quickly tied the finished letter to Hedwig's outstretched leg and checked to see if Vernon's car was in the driveway. It wasn't; he must have headed off to work already. As soon as he knew the coast was clear he sent Hedwig off and watched as she squeezed through the window and flew off towards London.

As Dawn was replacing the paneling on the wall Harry realized something. "What happens when they look in and see Hedwig's gone?"

"Oh… Uh… Oops," Dawn said. "Hadn't thought of that. We could put something in front of the cage so they couldn't see into it."

"Like what?" asked Harry. Dawn stared at him blankly. "One of us is going to have to stay up here and keep the door closed until she comes back. Nothing else to do is there?" At that moment there was a loud knock on their door.

"What are you two doing in there!" yelled Aunt Petunia. "I want this door open! I won't have you plotting behind closed doors in my house." Harry and Dawn stared at each other for a second, panicked. Harry leapt in front of front of the empty cage and nodded to Dawn to open the door.

"S-sorry Aunt Petunia." Dawn stammered. "The wind must have closed it."

"I don't believe you." Aunt Petunia stared at Dawn for a minute before turning to Harry. "I'll be right downstairs and I want no funny business. I'll know if you try to sneak something past me." She was beginning to sound like Uncle Vernon. Harry suppressed a giggle as a fleeting image of Petunia with a bushy moustache on her horse-like mouth crossed his mind's eye.

"No, Aunt Petunia. We'll behave. We always do." He mumbled the last part under his breath as Petunia turned to leave. Dawn gave him a light smile.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Harry had pulled the old coat rack out of the closet and placed it just in front of Hedwig's cage. It didn't look too out of the ordinary and succeeded in hiding Hedwig's absence somewhat. Dawn had opened the loose floorboard and pulled a few white quills out and put them inside the cage to complete the effect. They took no chances however and Harry and Dawn made sure that one of them was in the room at all times. The only time they dared leave the room together was when Petunia called them for lunch, which Harry bolted down quickly and then went straight back up to the bedroom. After they had been locked in all day yesterday, and with their self imposed sit in, the Potter children were beginning to get rather bored.

"Okay, Harry. I was going to give this to you later, but this will keep you occupied for a while." Dawn pulled a large notebook out of the back of the closet. "It's your birthday present."

"Thank you, Dawn." Harry looked at his gift. It wasn't gift wrapped or anything, which was sort a tradition between them. Every July 31st for Harry, and every September 22nd for Dawn, they were given a handmade gift from their sibling. It had started out as necessity, they had no money, after all, but after they learned about their Gringott's vault they had kept the tradition of hand making gifts. Last year Dawn had presented Harry a pop-up book she had made detailing his glorious defeat of Voldemort during Harry's first year. Harry looked down at the notebook in his hands. "How did you know I wouldn't look there, anyway?"

"You never look in the closet. You just throw your dirty clothes in there and wait for them to pile up. It wasn't hard." Harry chuckled at his sister's frankness. "Go ahead open it."

Harry opened the first page. On the first page, in Dawn's flowing, classy script, were the words "The Life and Times of Dawn and Harry Potter" subtitled "Dawn's version." He looked at Dawn after reading the title. "Now you have to give me one from your point of view. But not for my birthday!" she warned him. "Be creative and invent your own present."

Harry gave Dawn a sheepish grin and thanked her for the present. He sat down at his desk and went to turn the page. "You don't mind if I read this now, do you," he asked her lightly. She shook her head and Harry began reading the first page.

Harry read all about his and Dawn's life growing up. Most wasn't new to him, but he learned some things about his sister he never knew- how horrible it was to live with the Dursleys during Harry's first year at Hogwarts, how scared she was she wouldn't be able to go when it was her turn and the enormous relief when her Hogwarts letter came a year after his, Dawn's fear and terror when Harry couldn't make the train her first year, and how for a while people thought she opened the Chamber of Secrets before they turned on Harry. He read about her involvement with the Sirius Black episode her second year and he read about how she felt watching Harry in the Triwizard Tournament. Harry read each word carefully, taking in every nuance of his sister's writing. Just as he was finishing up, having read about the Department of Mysteries from Dawn's point of view (just reaching the part where her wand was broken by a Death Eater's _Reducto_ Curse) when a high pitched scream startled him from the pages.

"Aunt Petunia," Dawn whispered. Harry was worried. The only thing that could entice a scream like that from Petunia was magic, and Harry was on the alert for Voldemort's men. He silently signaled for Dawn to stay behind him as he pulled out his wand and crept silently out of their room and onto the landing. Harry listened intently and made out a gravelly, unfriendly voice. They were asking for him. Harry Potter. Harry crept out a little farther and glanced down towards the front door. He could see someone standing there. Someone in a long black cloak.

* * *

**So how's that for a beginning. This is quite a long chapter and I don't expect them all to be this long, but there was a lot that needed to be set up. Thesecond chapter will be posted in a few days. Ta.**


	2. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: I forgot it last time. Harry Potter and all related characters as well as the Wizarding World in general belong to JK Rowling. The idea of Dawn andsome of themajor plot turnsbelong to Joss Whedon.**

**Review Responses  
****dave-gerecke: Thanks for the review. I'm glad the first chapter was confusing, it was supposed to be. The mystery of Dawn won't be explained for a little while yet, there's a few other things I am going to do first, but you'll find out eventually. I actually have about a third of the story done, so it's a matter of editing and posting what I've already done. And of course continuing on. That said, here's Chapter 2.**

* * *

Harry froze when he saw the black cloak. His heart beat loudly as he realized what that meant. "Death Eaters," he whispered to Dawn. "Stay here." Harry took a few more gingerly steps until he was at the very top of the stairs. He heard Petunia whimper and listened again as the Death Eater demanded to see Harry. His ears strained as a hint of recognition came to him. He knew the voice, but whose was it.

Harry's mind raced trying to match the voice to Voldemort's men. Rodolphus Lestrange? No, he's in Azkaban. The voice isn't slick enough to be Malfoy. Nott? Macnair? No it wasn't them. But Harry couldn't shake the feeling that this person was familiar.

Harry kept himself tense, ready to act if he had to, but he wouldn't be the one to make the first move. He'd already been disciplined for using magic and he had another year to go before he was legal. Harry decided to try and get a closer look. He moved onto the first step, silently thanking Petunia for the extra thick carpeting that muffled his step. He went down a couple more, treading softly, until he reached the fourth stair, the one that squeaks. He'd have to skip the squeaky stair and go for the one below it. It would be tough to do it quietly, but Harry needed to see the unwelcome visitor. He looked back at Dawn and prepared himself for an extra large stride. She looked strangely calm for the situation. Harry looked down at the intruder. One more step and he could see the man's face. Harry looked at the stair and imagined himself making the step quietly, then moved his feet downward.

"Come on, Potter! I'm not waiting all day." Harry startled at the sound and looked at his visitor's face missing the stair completely. He overbalanced and tumbled to the bottom of the stairs. Dawn giggled madly at Harry's less than spectacular entrance and ran down the stairs past Harry, smiling the whole way.

"Hi Moody," Dawn greeted the visitor. "Never mind the spaz. He thought you were a Death Eater." She found this extremely funny.

"Hello, Dawn. And Harry, I see you've been learning stealth from Nymphadora, here."

"It's Tonks, you old coot. And put your hat back on you're scaring Mrs. Dursley, prude that she is." Tonks pushed between Moody and the doorway. "Wotcher, Harry. You all right?"

"Yeah," he replied grinning awkwardly. He felt a tinge of a blush on his face. Standing up he levied a stern look at Moody. "You should have told me you were coming. I saw your black cloak and assumed the worst."

"Constant vigilance, my boy." Mad-Eye beamed at Harry. "My message finally gets through. Go, get your stuff, we're leaving."

"Really!" Dawn perked up at the news and ran off hastily to pack.

"Can you get mine, too," Harry asked. "I'm already packed."

Dawn groaned, but nodded her assent as she disappeared up the stairs. "So, when did you first know I was there," he asked Moody, eager to hear how stealthy he had been.

"Had my eye on you the whole time." Moody's pale blue eye settled on Harry and pierced him with the gaze. "Your feet gave you away. You should have checked who I was first. Knelt down and scope out the situation. Also, I would recommend dark shoes in the future." Harry looked down at his white sneakers. They were scuffed and frayed, but the pale color would be quite visible in the shadows.

Just then Dawn called out from upstairs. "Harry I can't carry this. Come up here and help me." Harry went up and saw her struggling with Hedwig's cage. Dawn had only a small bag full of books and a suitcase of clothes. "Our trunks are under the stairs."

"Right." The two made their way down the stairs, Dawn heading the door and Harry walking over by Petunia. She was still cowering in the corner near the stairs. "Our trunks are in there, you'll have to move. God, Moody, what did you do to her?"

"He didn't even touch the old prude," Tonks broke in before walking across the room to help with Petunia and the trunks.

Dawn was left alone with Moody in the doorway and found the ex-Auror staring at her unsettlingly with his magic eye. Dawn was nervously darting her eyes and she had begun to blush. She would give anything to be away from him and started to walk towards Harry and Tonks when Moody's gnarled hand darted out and caught her by the forearm.

"Something's not right," Moody said, still staring intently at the younger Potter; his grip tightening on the girl's skin. He continued rambling, his voice gaining in intensity. "Something's out of place. What are you doing here!" Moody nearly shouted the last part.

"Alastor Moody! Not everyone is out to kill you," Tonks admonished the old man. "Get their trunks. Now!" She could be quite frightening when she was riled up. Moody snapped out of his daze and turned his malice toward Petunia Dursley as he went off to get the Potter's trunks.

"What was that about?" Dawn whispered nervously. She was somewhat shaken by Mad-Eye's treatment. Harry gave her a confused look that clearly said he didn't understand either.

"He's old," said Tonks as if that explained everything. "He's seen a lot of things." She put her finger to her lips as Moody walked back toward them.

"Where's Aunt Petunia," asked Harry. He hadn't seen her leave the room. Dawn and Tonks looked around as well.

"She's fine. We need to go," said Moody and walked out the door. As he did Harry caught him glance toward the cupboard, then he understood completely. He smiled at Moody who bent down to whisper into Harry's ear. "Permanent sticking charm on the door. They'll have to cut through the stairs to get at her." Harry looked at the old man and let out a big laugh as they walked out the door.

Tonks led them to a large black Cadillac sedan which was parked on the street. "Where are we going," asked Dawn as they loaded their things. "Back to Grimmauld Place?"

"Not just yet," Moody answered. "There are still some things we need to work out now that Sirius..." He trailed off. He had noticed Harry flinch at the mention of his godfather. Tonks noticed, as well.

"You all right, Harry," she asked him gingerly.

"Yeah. It's just still a bit fresh. Sorry."

"No need to apologize. I know it hurts. I miss my cousin, too." Tonks looked at him with sympathy. Harry felt his old anger begin to well up. He didn't want sympathy. He just wanted to be left alone. He closed the trunk hastily and took his seat in the back. Dawn sat next to him, while Moody and Tonks took the front seat. Moody was driving.

Dawn saw the look on Harry's face and sensed her brother's mood. She deftly changed the subject. "Where are we going then?"

Moody started the car and turned onto the drive. "The Burrow," he answered in his gruff voice. Tonks turned to the backseat.

"Molly and Arthur Weasley insisted. Molly said the two of you are practically her children, anyways," she continued. Dawn grinned widely at that.

"We'll get to see Ginny, then," she said.

Harry gave her a knowing grin. "And Ronnie-kins," he teased making his sister go red. He knew she liked Ron. It wasn't a secret really, and Harry liked to tease her about it.

"Oh, please. I'm so over him. And besides, he likes Hermione." Dawn glared at her older brother, but he went on badgering her anyway.

"If you're so over him, why did you blush? But I don't disagree with you on the Hermione part." Harry softened his voice on the last part. He didn't want his sister to hurt too badly. He remembered what it felt like to watch someone you like with someone else. He had watched Cho dance with Cedric at the Yule Ball, after all.

"I didn't blush…" Dawn looked imploringly at Harry, then changed tactics. "All right, all right, I did. But it was only because you tease me about him. I'm over him, really. I've got my eye on someone new."

"Really? Who?" Harry switched to his protective older brother voice. "It isn't Malfoy is it?"

Dawn looked at Harry and teased, "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," before bursting into hysterical laughter. Harry reached over the seat and tickled her making her laugh even harder.

A thick sheet of glass appeared separating the back seat from the front. The Potter siblings didn't even notice. Tonks turned to Moody. "Thanks for that," she said grateful for the barrier that muffled the sounds from two hyper teenagers. She caught a small wink from Moody's normal eye before he turned it back to the road.


	3. Chapter Three

**Thanks to bandgsecurtiyaw for the 2 reviews. There will follow a couple of chapters in quick succession, since they're rather short and light on action. Here is Chapter 3, Chapter 4 will follow soon.**

* * *

Ronald Weasley sat on the front steps of The Burrow. He had a copy of _Quidditch Through the Ages_ in his hands and was going through the pages. Every now and then he looked up for signs of the black Cadillac his father had purchased just last month. Mrs. Weasley had been furious, but Mr. Weasley claimed it was confiscated evidence from an old ministry case and that he was able to persuade the ministry to sell it to him for a song. Harry should be getting here any time now along with Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, and of course Dawn.

Ron hoped Harry was in a good mood. He hadn't been able to talk to him all summer and if Hermione was right about Hedwig, then there was no way of knowing what Harry was feeling. He knew Harry had taken Sirius' death quite hard, not that Ron blamed him, and Ron knew he tended to bottle his feelings inside. Dawn was a little better. She would confide in Ginny and Hermione, and talk about her feelings. Must be a girl thing.

Ron looked up from his book for what seemed like the hundredth time and saw the old black Cadillac pulling up the drive. He smiled and waved before dropping his book and going over to greet them.

"Hi, Harry," Ron yelled.

"Hey Ron!" Harry said back.

"Hello, Ron," said Dawn while she avoided looking him in the eye. "Good summer?"

"Not too bad," Ron replied. "Ginny's upstairs in her room. Go on up and see her."

"Oh… Thanks. Bye, Ron." Dawn quickly made her way to the front door, dragging her trunk behind.

"She's still got a crush on you," joked Harry. "She says she's over it, but she's not. Not fully, anyway."

"Bloody girls," was the only response Harry got.

Moody chose this moment to interrupt. "Your mother inside, Ronald?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'd like to speak with her."

"Go right on in. She's in the kitchen." Ron Weasley motioned the Auror to the door. Moody limped off to the front door and Tonks followed, giving the boys a wave.

"Well let's get your stuff upstairs, then." Ron said to Harry as he picked up Hedwig's cage. "Where's Hedwig?"

"Oh, I'm not sure. London, I think."

"Remus is in charge of the Headquarters. He'll make sure she finds us." Ron took a deep breath and asked Harry the thing he had resolved to. "How are you holding up… y'know after all that… that happened… a couple months ago…"

"I'm fine. You can tell Hermione you asked." Ron's face began heating up as Harry hit too close to the mark. "I'm fine. Is Hermione here?"

Ron was relieved Harry didn't want to talk about Sirius. Harry was upset about it, sure, but this wasn't Ron's area of expertise. "Actually, no. She's staying with her parents this summer. Said she felt bad she never sees them. We won't see her until we get on the train."

"Oh, maybe we can convince her to meet at Diagon Alley at least?"

"Maybe," Ron said and shrugged and helped Harry heave his trunk up the stairs and into the house. They got all of Harry's things upstairs and into Ron's room before two hyper teenage girls came running by. Flitting through the hall giggling and squealing, the two young girls ran into Ron's room and started harassing their older brothers.

"C'mon," started Dawn, pulling Harry's arm. "Let's go play a game of Quidditch before dinner." Harry grinned and grabbed his Firebolt and the four of them ran off to the paddock laughing as they went.

* * *

The four of them flew for a couple of hours. As was usual they couldn't use real Quidditch balls, in case they escaped, so they took turns standing at the sidelines throwing things in the air to catch. They practiced Quidditch plays Ron had studied over the summer. Harry chided him for reading on his vacation, but Ron said it wasn't reading it was strategy. Harry laughed and called Ron something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "Hermione."

Fred and George showed up while they were playing and charmed one of the balls to fly, but to stay within range. Dawn sat out after that, not being as big a Quidditch fan as the others. She preferred racing. She had Harry's love of flying and speed, but couldn't get herself worked up over quaffles and bludgers and snitches. Pretty soon Molly called them all in to dinner.

Harry gasped as he entered the house. The Burrow was the fullest Harry had ever seen it. All the Weasleys were there, save Percy, and Bill had brought along Fleur. Moody and Tonks were still around and had been joined by other members of the order. Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and even Mundungus Fletcher, although Harry noted Molly kept her eye on him. All of them began singing the Happy Birthday song as Harry walked in (Fred and George adding the obligatory "You belong in a zoo" verse), and when they finished Harry was swallowed up in a large hug. He extricated himself with some difficulty and thanked them for the welcome before making his way toward the table for dinner.

"Molly, you've outdone yourself this time," said Lupin. "These scalloped potatoes are excellent."

"Yes, truly," added Kingsley. Mrs. Weasley blushed in response as everyone sat down to eat.

Harry sat across from Dawn and Ginny, Ron was on his left and Remus on his right, and was politely participating in the conversation.

"So, when did you get your Firebolt back," asked Remus.

"Just after term ended," replied Harry. "Dumbledore gave it to me when he lifted my Quidditch ban. He said 'the punishment must fit the crime.' It's a Muggle expression," he continued when he saw the confused looks from some of the wizards.

Conversation continued along these lines until everybody had finished eating. Harry chuckled when Ron took seconds and thirds of everything.

"What!" Ron demanded. Harry feigned innocence and laughed when Ginny caught his eye. He was really enjoying this. Twenty four hours ago he wouldn't have believed it if he had been told he'd be at a huge birthday party for himself. Harry listened to the various conversations for a while and not hearing anything he wanted to get in on he turned his attention back to Remus.

"How have you been, Lupin?"

"Okay, Harry." Remus seemed to ponder something for a moment and then continued. "There's actually something I want to talk to you about, but I don't think this is the best time."

Harry felt his heart beat louder in his chest. What horrible thing was he going to find out about this year? His throat dried up, but he managed to speak. "What's it about?"

Remus pulled him away from the table, motioning Harry to follow. Harry was struck by how haggard Remus looked. His hair seemed to have become more gray and the bags under his eyes were accentuated by his serious look.

"Well, you know that you and Dawn are Sirius' heirs, right?"

Harry felt even further constriction in his chest. He hadn't thought about that. "No, I didn't." His voice betrayed the pain he felt when he thought of Sirius. "What about you? Can't you take it?" Harry didn't need anything and the last thing he wanted was to be constantly reminded of his godfather.

"Well, yes actually, he did leave me some things." Remus started, "More than he should have actually, but his house and his Gringott's vault are to go to you and your sister."

"Oh." was all that Harry managed to say. They didn't need the gold, and he didn't want the Black House. It held nothing but painful memories for him, and he knew Sirius hadn't liked it, either. He was sure Dawn felt the same way. Remus looked at him sympathetically before continuing.

"There's just a few legal things that need to be taken care of, but we don't need to talk about it now. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." Remus led Harry by the shoulder. "Come on, enjoy the rest of your party."

But Harry didn't feel like celebrating anymore. His happiness had melted away with the talk of Sirius. Harry wandered from group to group, but didn't feel much like mingling. He made his way outside and sat quietly on the front stairs.

Harry looked up at the stars. It wasn't a clear night, but there was enough of a break in the clouds to see some of them. He tried to find the Dog Star. The one Sirius was named after, but he didn't know his astronomy well, so gave up after a few tries. It felt strangely fitting that he couldn't find it. Like he was looking for something that didn't exist. Harry turned as he heard the front door open.

"Hey." Dawn had come to find him. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Harry replied. He didn't want to burden Dawn with this right now. She was his little sister and Harry felt the need to protect her from this, too.

"I don't believe you." Dawn countered. "What's on your mind? And you have to tell me because you know I won't stop pestering you until you do."

Harry resigned himself to his fate and said simply, "Sirius."

"Oh." replied Dawn, apparently no more articulate than Harry at times. She knew he was hurting, but she didn't know what to say, or how to make him better. She missed Sirius, too, but Harry seemed to be having a harder time with it. "Well, they want you to open the presents soon. We should go in."

Harry nodded and followed his sister through the front door. Mrs. Weasley had set out a beautiful cake and was the first to notice Dawn come back with Harry.

"He's here everybody," she said and the room got quieter. "Come on, Harry, you're the guest of honor." She grabbed him and set him in front of the cake while Arthur took a few pictures. He blew out his sixteen candles and followed the tradition of cutting the first slice. Dawn, who had set next to him, took up the knife and doled out the rest of the cake faithfully while turning Harry to his presents.

Harry opened his presents dutifully. He first showed everyone Dawn's gift, which garnered much praise and attention. He opened Hermione's next. It was a rather large box which contained another homework planner, two books on Dark Arts and one book on Quidditch. Ron snatched that one out of his hands and started going over the various plays. Mrs. Weasley had made some of her mouthwatering peanut-butter fudge. Harry sampled a bite and was delighted to find she had mixed Fizzing Whizzbees into the batch which gave his tongue a tickling sensation as they dissolved. Dawn eyed the tin jealously until Harry offered her a piece. He didn't expect there would be much left after Dawn was through. Mr. Weasley had found some Muggle things he gave to Harry, although Harry suspected Mr. Weasley wanted to play with them himself. He promised to show Mr. Weasley how to work such things as a flashlight, a retractable ballpoint pen, and a laser pointer after the party. Bill and Fleur had got Harry a wonderful new outfit. There was a pair of black pants in his size, much better than the baggy blue jeans that were hand-me-downs from Dudley, and a couple of different button-down shirts. One was green and matched his eyes, while the other changed color to suit his mood. Harry thanked them, hoping the color blue matched whatever else he owned.  
The next present Harry took was a small box that Ron said was from Charlie in Romania. Harry opened it and saw the largest ring he had ever seen in his life. It was made of sterling silver, with a large blue turquoise on the left, a red coral on the right and what looked like a real dragon tooth in between. Ron told him it was an old tooth from the same Hungarian Horntail Harry had gone up against in the Triwizard tournament. Harry slid the ring over his left middle finger and was happy to see it was charmed to fit any finger he chose to wear it on. Dawn asked if she could see it up close and Harry slipped the ring off and handed it to her.

Ron started telling Harry about the magical features Charlie had added to the ring. "Charlie charmed it so that it will fit any finger you want it to. It won't come off unless you take it off, and you're the only one who can wear it."

Harry looked impressed and looked back to the ring. Dawn had it on her ring finger. "Guess that spell doesn't work so well," he said to Ron. Ron looked at the ring strangely and said something about Charlie's shoddy spell work before turning back to Harry. Dawn passed the ring to Ginny.

Harry was opening his gift from Kingsley (a Dark Arts Defense Kit that was like those issued to Aurors) when he heard Ginny cry out in pain. Ron jumped up, knocking Dawn over in the process, and ran to protect his sister, when he saw she was staring at her finger and was holding the dragon tooth ring in the other hand.

"It burned me!" Ginny gasped in surprise. Harry looked closer, and sure enough there was a band of reddened skin where the ring had set. It looked like it was starting to blister. Mrs. Weasley ran off to get an ointment and Ron gaped at Ginny's blistering red skin.

"Huh. That's weird," he said. He stopped staring at Ginny's finger only when Dawn Potter blocked his way. "Oh, sorry, Dawnie. I didn't mean to knock you over." He received nothing but a cool, angry glare in return.

Harry leaned over to Ron, and in a whisper loud enough for everyone to hear said "I think she's officially over you, mate." Ron looked incredulous at Harry's bravado and Harry earned himself a punch in the arm courtesy of Dawn. Ron backed away from her at that, not wanting to get caught in one himself. Mrs. Weasley returned and rubbed the salve onto Ginny's burned finger. The blisters disappeared immediately and she seemed to be much more comfortable. With that over Harry turned to the rest of his presents and the rest of the night went by swiftly. After the party wound down and people began to leave Harry excused himself and got ready for bed. Ron joined him after a little bit and Harry fell asleep quickly, too exhausted to be woken by any dreams.


	4. Chapter Four

**Here's a nice long chapter, still getting a lot of the exposition out of the way. Please leave a review if you like it! Or if you hate it. Either way. **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the Wizarding World described therein belong to J.K. Rowling. The overall idea of Dawn belongs to Joss Whedon.**

* * *

The next few weeks at the Weasleys went by very quickly. Harry and Dawn kept themselves occupied, what with helping Mrs. Weasley with the housework, de-gnoming the garden, and teaching Mr. Weasley about the various Muggle things. Harry hadn't told Dawn about his chat with Remus. He found himself seeking solitude where his mind often turned to the veil at the Department of Mysteries. His Godfather was on his mind all day, and haunted his dreams at night. Harry wasn't getting along well, and his face showed it.

Early in the first week Harry got his first letter from Hermione. It described her holiday with her parents, they had seen much of continental Europe, and ended by badgering Harry to talk about his feelings. He hadn't expected any less, and while he had written a lengthy reply, he conveniently ignored her bullying about Sirius. Ron had apparently been bullied as well because he had approached the subject a couple of times, but after five years Harry was skilled at turning the line of questioning and Ron didn't really try all that hard.

Dawn and Ginny spent most of their time together and had apparently been having a great time of it. They had been in contact with Luna who had just returned from Sweden. She was even going to come out to The Burrow for the last week of the summer holiday. Harry wasn't sure how he felt about that. He knew Ron didn't like the unusual girl, but Harry had found some solace when he had last seen her at the end of term. She was quite unusual, but was that such a bad thing? Harry found himself nervous at the prospect of seeing her and wasn't sure why, but the third week of August he got some news that pushed Luna out of his mind.

It was Wednesday morning of the third week. Mr. Weasley was just about to leave the breakfast table when he stopped and directed himself to Harry. "Oh, Harry," he began. "Tomorrow I need you to come to London with me. Dawn, too. It's about the estate."

Dawn was confused. "What's this about?"

"Sirius' estate. I'm sure Harry has told you. He willed everything to the two of you." Mr. Weasley caught Dawn's look of surprised and suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Dawn turned on Harry.

"When were you going to tell me this!" It wasn't a question. "Little Dawn, can't know anything. He was my godfather, too, you know." Harry looked to Ron for help, but Ron was no longer there. He and Ginny were slipping out the door. Harry turned back to his irate sister. He kept a calm voice to try and defuse Dawn's temper.

"I just found out myself, Dawnie." Harry used his sister's nickname; it usually helped to calm her down. "Lupin told me about it, and I didn't think you'd need to be involved."

"I want to be involved!" Dawn countered. "You can't protect me from this stuff."

Harry scoffed at this, only raising Dawn's ire. She continued.

"You don't even think about me. You just do whatever is best for Harry Potter. Well what about Dawn Potter!"

"I tried to protect you. I was thinking of you the whole time, Dawn."

"Nobody ever thinks about me! It's Harry this and Harry that. Just because you're the freakin' 'Boy-Who-Lived' doesn't mean you're better than me you know."

"I never said that."

"Well everyone else says it for you." Dawn slumped in her chair, dejection obvious in her voice and posture. Harry stood up and walked around the table, kneeling in front of her chair. She wasn't crying, but holding it inside, the same thing he was so good at. Harry looked his sister in the eye.

"Everyone else is wrong." There was conviction in his voice. "Everyone thinks Harry Potter is so special because he stopped the Dark Lord. My second year, your first, everyone thought I opened the chamber of secrets, but I didn't. Everyone thought I was lying about Voldemort last year, but I wasn't. I can't tell you not to let it bother you, because I know that it does. But I will tell you that it doesn't matter what they think, because they don't matter. The only thing that matters is you. That you're the girl you want to be; not the girl 'they' want you to be." Dawn continued staring coolly at Harry, but he thought he could see a hint of forgiveness behind her blue stare.

"When did you get to be so mature?" Dawn tried to be forceful, but her voice betrayed her. "And I'm not a girl, you know. I'm a woman."

"Sorry, Dawnie, but my little sister will never be a woman." He laughed, she just rolled her eyes. "And you're right. I should have told about it." Harry gave his sister a brief hug and again apologized before they both ran off to tell the Weasleys they could have their kitchen back.

When Harry thought about it later he realized he had done to her the same thing Dumbledore had done to him at the end of last year. They both had tried to protect somebody they loved from something immensely hurtful. Harry suddenly understood Dumbledore's logic and what led him to keep his secret for so many years. That moment was when Harry decided to allow himself to forgive the old headmaster.

* * *

The Potter children were up early the next morning. Dawn had been adamant that she accompany Harry to settle the estate. Harry wasn't enthusiastic about the idea, but remembering their tiff from the day before he didn't raise any objections. Mrs. Weasley prepared them a large breakfast, saying "You need your strength on a day like today." Harry found he couldn't eat. He tried forcing down a bit of egg and toast, but his mouth and throat were dry and swallowing was an ordeal. Dawn did a little better, but neither was much in the mood for eating. Mr. Weasley joined them in the kitchen, but did not sit, and took only one piece of toast before announcing it was time to leave. Harry and Dawn followed him to the fireplace where he handed them each a bit of floo powder. 

"Where are we going? The Ministry?" Harry asked. Mr. Weasley looked nervous.

"Umm… Grimmauld Place, actually." He glanced at Harry who had paled at the idea. "It's a wizard law, Harry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." said Harry, with more confidence than he felt. "It's just… I haven't been there since before Sirius died." He had said it aloud. He didn't like to do that. Saying it out loud made it seem too final and was much too painful. Harry had always preferred to say "Sirius went away" or "Sirius left" because the words implied Sirius might come back. It was silly, he knew, but it made him feel a little bit better somehow. Harry felt Dawn take his hand.

"It's okay, Harry," she told him. "We'll be here." Just like Dawn, delightfully trite and cliché. Harry smiled at her.

"Thanks." He took a deep breath and walked toward the fire. Mr. Weasley held him back.

"There's one more thing before we go," Mr. Weasley told him. "Dumbledore told me about the house elf. He's to be transferred to you as well. I don't expect it to be easy for you, but you need to decide what to do with him. It doesn't have to be done today, but a decision must be made soon."

"Can we give him to somebody else," Dawn asked.

"Perhaps. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but will look into what I can. Anyway, we best be going. We're late as it is." And with that Mr. Weasley threw the floo powder into the fireplace and disappeared.

Harry and Dawn went in together. Neither enjoyed traveling by floo and found it easier to bear if they knew they wouldn't be separated from each other. After a quick, swirling, sickening ride they landed in front of the fire at 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry falling flat on his back and dragging Dawn down with him. He looked up to see Mad-Eye Moody grinning over him.

"Do you always make an entrance on your back, Mr. Potter?" Moody said. Dawn giggled, but Harry didn't find the comment funny. Tonks was standing behind Moody and gave him a light cuff on the arm.

"Leave him alone," she said and walked over to help Harry stand. Dawn had stood up on her own. Harry turned his attention to Mr. Weasley.

"Is Madame Bones here, yet?" Mr. Weasley asked Moody. Moody shook his head in response.

"She's running late, too, I suppose." The name struck a chord and Harry recognized from his expulsion hearing last year.

"Is that Susan Bones' aunt? I thought she dealt with underage magic and things like that?"

"She does," Mr. Weasley told him, "but she's a member of the Order, so she asked to be assigned this case. She's fully qualified to handle it. No need to worry." Harry was mildly surprised, he thought he knew everyone in the order, but didn't think long on it. Now that Voldemort's return was common knowledge he expected there would be lots of new members to the Order.

Tonks started Mr. Weasley in polite conversation and Harry took the time to look the house over. It was the same as he remembered it, layers of dust everywhere, the Black family crest embroidered and engraved on everything. He didn't like looking at it. Sirius spent the last year of his life cooped up in this house and like Sirius Harry didn't have any fond feelings toward the place. He turned out of the living room and walked into the hallway.

Mrs. Black's painting was still here, hidden behind her curtains. Harry hoped that when he took control of the house he could find a way to get rid of her and maybe put a picture of Sirius there instead. Not even that happy thought could lift his mood, though. Just then, something touched Harry's hand and rested there.

Dawn had followed her older brother through the living room and into the hallway. She didn't want him to be alone in this house; she knew being here upset him and didn't want him to do anything rash. She didn't like it much herself, but then she had always had an older brother to look up to. Harry parented her much the same way Sirius had parented him. She couldn't imagine a life without her brother and couldn't fathom what he was going through. It hurt too much to think of it. She watched as Harry paused in front of Mrs. Black's portrait, staring at the closed curtains. Slowly, she had walked her way over to him and grasped his hand.

Harry started slightly at Dawn's touch, but the familiarity was reassuring. He whispered into her ear, "I was thinking about how we should try to get rid of this thing, maybe put Sirius there instead?" She nodded in agreement and pulled him out of the hallway into a sitting room where they could talk openly without waking the painting.

"Do you have any ideas how to remove it," Dawn said. "Moody said there might be a permanent sticking charm on it and there isn't a counter-charm."

"We'll think of some way," Harry told her just as Mr. Weasley poked his head around the door.

"Think of some way to what?" he asked. Harry wasted no time.

"Get rid of Sirius' mother," he said. "I don't want that here if I'm to own this house."

"Oh! We'll think of something," Mr. Weasley reassured him. "Madame Bones is ready for you, come this way."

Harry and Dawn followed Mr. Weasley into the kitchen, but as she walked by the portrait of Mrs. Black Dawn's shoulder grazed the edge of the fabric. Just that slight movement was enough to wake the occupant and the curtains flew open. Mrs. Black went into a rage.

"HALF-BLOODS. TRAITORS! FILTH. ABOMINATIONS!", she began, her high pitched screeching drowning out everything else. "YOU DARE TO DEFILE THE ANCIENT AND NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK! TRAITORS! CRETINS! ABOMI"

Dawn cut her off mid-scream by yelling "SHUT UP!" Mrs. Black turned to Dawn for the first time since waking and suddenly began shaking in fear, her eyes widened, and she sank into the canvas. "I-I-I'm s-sorry, dear. W-won't happen a-again. I assure you. I-I'll just be g-g-going now. No harm m-meant." With that the curtains drew shut and the hallway was left in silence.

Harry and Mr. Weasley stared at Dawn, surprise evident on their faces. Dawn was no less stunned, and hadn't removed her eyes from the wall, the curtains now blocking the offending painting. Harry spoke first.

"That was weird…" he said lamely. "And awesome!" He gave Dawn a big smile, the first she had seen since they arrived. Mr. Weasley hadn't yet shaken off his surprise and stood gaping at the wall.

"How extraordinary!" He shook his head and repeated it. "How extraordinary!" Just then someone called from downstairs.

"You all right up there?" It was Tonks. "Madame Bones is waiting."

"Yes, we'll be right there." Mr. Weasley called back. Usually that would have been enough to start Sirius' mother's portrait going again, but this time the curtain's only response was a light trembling. The three walked slowly down the stairs, through the living room, and into the kitchen where Madame Bones was waiting. Harry smiled politely as he was introduced and Dawn shook her hand.

"Hello, Harry. It's nice to see you again." Madame Bones was a tall, plump woman, matronly in a way, and her smell was a mixture of flowery perfume and hand lotion. She was wearing a white dress with a floral print, and unlike Umbridge, who had surrounded herself with kittens and flowery things to hide her sinister side, Madame Bones seemed sincere and wore these things because she actually liked them. Harry took an immediate liking to her; she was the perfect grandmother figure and it was hard not to. "Don't worry, dear, this won't take long. We just require a few signatures from you and your sister."

Harry nodded his head in understanding and started looking over the paperwork. Madam Bones began by explaining the procedure and then going over what the children would receive. Harry would then sign the papers, pass the paperwork to Dawn, who would also sign, and then return the paperwork to Madam Bones, who then signed as witness. As promised it didn't take very long, though there was a lot of papers and things. There was the deed to the house, Sirius' Gringott's vault, and then the miscellaneous items which included all the furnishings and knick-knacks and such that were in the house. Harry suddenly pondered something. "Er. Excuse me, Madame Bones."

She looked up from her paperwork and gave Harry a polite smile. "Yes, dear."

"Sirius left things to other people, too, right?" He didn't want to mention it to the kind old woman, but he felt guilty taking these things. He didn't need the gold, didn't want the house, and he somehow felt wrong profiting off of Sirius' accident. He'd give it all back just to be able to talk to Sirius again. As this thought entered his mind Harry chanced a glance at Dawn, hoping for reassurance. She looked just as miserable as he felt.

"Yes, dear. He did," Madam Bones said. "But everything else has already been taken care of. You're the last."

She spotted the look on Harry's face and continued. "I'm sorry. I know this must be hard on you. We can come back to it another day if you like."

Harry shook his head no. "We're almost done. I'll be okay."

Madam Bones looked warily at the last sheet of paper. She took a deep breath before speaking. Harry's heart beat loudly, fearing the worst. "This is for the house elf. The paper's been enchanted so he will serve you as the master of his house. I hear he's been very difficult lately and we hope he will listen to you once you take control of him."

Harry took the last piece of paper and stared. He didn't read it, he didn't even take in the words. He stared at it blankly, trying to block his anger for the elf. Bracing himself he put his name to the paper. Dawn did the same, followed by Madam Bones, and when all the signatures were finished the ink swelled with a vibrant blue light before fading to black. Madame Bones began gathering her things and stood up, motioning to the others to do so. She then gave Harry and Dawn each a large envelope. "These are duplicate copies of the paperwork," she explained. "The deed to the house, keys to the vault, and that sort of thing. If you have any more questions later on you can come to me. Mr. Weasley knows where to find me, as does Headmaster Dumbledore, of course."

She began to leave, but turned to him a moment and looked him over carefully before addressing him not as a client, but as a person. "I want to thank you, Harry. Susan told me how you taught them Defense Against the Dark Arts last year and you can't believe how much that meant to all of us. That was why I joined the Order, you know. I saw a fifteen year old boy helping people defend themselves and wondered why I wasn't doing the same." She trailed off at the last sentence and lowered her voice to a whisper.

"I shouldn't tell you this, but Fudge won't be Minister much longer." Harry brightened at the news. "The Wizengamot weren't happy with his educational decrees, which have all been repealed, and when it came out that Umbridge sent the Dementors after you the Wizengamot was quite angry. There are rumors that Fudge knew of it all along. And then when Voldemort revealed himself and we were so unprepared… well, I wouldn't want to be him right now."

Harry only hoped the minister would be somebody better, but Dawn asked the question before Harry got a chance to. "Ma'am, Who will be the new Minister?"

"Well, there's quite a process involved and we won't know anything until then. There's nominations and an election and such… And Fudge isn't gone yet. None of that will start until after that happens. Now, don't tell anyone about this yet, there will be an announcement in The Daily Prophet soon enough." Harry and Dawn nodded their assent, but Harry didn't know how long he could keep this news to himself. It was very exciting and he wanted to share it right away. At least he could talk to Dawn.

"Well, I best be going. I'm sure my desk is full of work already." Madame Bones waved at the children before apparating away. They then went to find Mr. Weasley to tell him they were finished and could go back to The Burrow.

Mr. Weasley was in the sitting room talking with Moody and Tonks. He turned to them as they came through the doorway. "How'd it go," he said. Harry thought for a second. It hadn't been as bad as he thought it would and there was even a pleasant afterglow as he thought about getting a new Minister of Magic.

"Not too bad," he answered truthfully before noticing three white envelopes in Mr. Weasley's hand. Pointing to them he asked "What are those?"

"Your Hogwarts letters. They just arrived" He gave one to Dawn and two to Harry. "The extra is your OWL results." Harry's heart looped again. He had been waiting for these. He needed an O in Potions or he couldn't be an Auror. The euphoria Harry had been feeling quickly plummeted when he imagined getting a D or a T instead. He shoved them in his back pocket and decided to open them later.

Dawn, however, opened hers as soon as it was in her hand. There wasn't anything unusual for a fifth year, just the normal list of books and supplies. Defense Against the Dark Arts was still listed so Dumbledore must have found a new teacher. She showed the list to Harry who was relieved at the news. He had briefly imagined DADA classes would be cancelled, but realized Dumbledore would teach it himself before he let that happen. Mr. Weasley had walked over to them and was beckoning to them for attention.

"So I have something to talk to you about. You know about all the wards on this house and how the Order has been using it for headquarters. Well, since it has a new owner now I was wondering what you planned to do"

"This will be continue to be headquarters," Dawn interrupted him and Harry nodded his head vigorously in agreement. "We don't have any plans to change anything."

"I was telling everyone there wasn't anything to worry about," Mr. Weasley said, although despite his words he looked relieved just the same. "Well, are we ready to go?"

The Potter children nodded their heads in agreement before taking a pinch of floo powder and heading back to The Burrow.

* * *

Harry expected Ron to still be in bed. It was his habit to sleep as late as possible while on holiday, so when Harry opened the door to the bedroom he was surprised to find Ron awake and dressed. Ron was sitting cross-legged on the bed when Harry entered and by the looks of things he had gotten his O.W.L. results as well. Ron was staring blankly at the thick envelope as if the longer he waited the better his grades would be. 

Harry broke the silence. "Have you opened them yet?" Ron started at the sound, he apparently hadn't noticed Harry come in. He showed Harry the underside of the envelope with its wax seal still intact.

"Not yet. Have you?" Harry smiled sheepishly and shook his head. "Mum doesn't know they're here, yet. You should have seen her a few years ago when Fred and George got theirs. It was horrible."

"Hermione must be happy." Harry said. Ron continued staring at the envelope as if he hadn't heard. He seemed to be more worried than Harry was. Finally he spoke.

"Maybe if you opened mine and I opened yours, it won't be so bad."

"All right," Harry said, fishing the envelope out of his pocket. He also took his Hogwarts letter and set it aside. Harry's heart was threatening to burst as they traded their O.W.L. letters and, on the count of three, each opened the other's results.

Harry began. "Astronomy- You got an A. Well, it's a pass. How about me?"

"You got an A too," Ron said. "They should have given us extra points because of how they tried to arrest Hagrid during the practical." Harry couldn't help but wonder if they actually had. "What's next," Ron asked.

"Care of Magical Creatures," Harry answered. "Hey! You got an E!"

"So did you, excellent." Ron gave him a quick thumbs up and then continued with the next course. "Charms- O. Wicked! They must have forgotten about your cheering charm. How'd I do?"

"An E," Harry said, hoping Ron wouldn't be too upset.

"That's all right. I expected worse after I blew up that rat. At least it wasn't my aunt." Harry let the pointed joke slide. "No surprise on this one. The great Harry Potter gets an Outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts." Ron announced the last one like an announcer at a ball park. Harry punched him in the arm.

"You got an Outstanding, too," Harry said, happy that both of them had achieved at least one Outstanding together, and proud of the DA club. Even though they had had a teacher as horrible as Umbridge Harry expected many of the DA members to do well on their owls.

"Divination's next." Ron snorted, but Harry continued anyway. "Sorry, mate, but you got a D in that." Ron didn't seem perturbed.

"Well, I was actually hoping to get a T. Find out if Fred and George were telling the truth." Ron did his best Troll imitation. "Uh… Today is Thursday, so I predict… Uh… tomorrow will be… Uh… what was the question?" Harry laughed and did his Trelawny impression, grabbing one of Ron's Chudley Cannon robes as a makeshift shawl.

"On any day the sun rises in the east, Harry Potter will die a miserable and grisly death." The boys were laughing by now and Harry realized his anxiety was lessening. As soon as the thought came to him, though, his fear came back in force.

"History of Magic," Ron continued, but was interrupted.

"Hey, what about my Divinations score?"

"What? Oh, right," Ron glanced to the paper for a moment before finding his place. "A. How'd you do that? How'd you do better than me?" Ron seemed hurt that Harry had done better than he had. Neither of them had ever seen anything in a crystal ball, and they always worked together. They should have got the same grade.

"I don't know. I just made it up like I always do. It doesn't matter anyway; I'm never taking Divination again," Harry wisely changed the subject. "Moving on, History of Magic you got an O. Wonderful! How did I do?"

"Um… you had that dream about Sirius during the test, remember?" Harry hadn't remembered, but now that he did he knew the score wouldn't be good. Ron continued, "So you got a D on that one. Sorry, mate." Harry couldn't help but feel disappointed to do so poorly on an exam- especially when Ron did so well. At least Ron seemed to feel better about his Divination grade.

"You have to thank Hermione for your O you know." Harry watched as Ron's ears turned red, then gave him a light push to keep the mood light. So far they had done better than they expected and were in a good mood for it.

"Potions," Ron began. Harry's heart was beating loudly now and he could feel his face starting to heat up. He needed an Outstanding in Potions or he could never become an Auror. Professor Snape absolutely refused to take any student into his N.E.W.T. class who didn't get an O on their O.W.L. Harry crossed his fingers and held his breath as he waited for his result.

"You got an E, mate," Ron said. Harry's heart sank. An E? That's so close, but just not good enough. What would he do if he didn't become an Auror? He felt a lump in his throat, but quickly swallowed it down. Ron's voice brought him out of the stupor. "What'd I get?" Ron asked. Harry looked down to the paper in his hand and barely managed to croak out the result.

"O." How could Ron get an O when it was Harry who needed one? He felt his world ending and he didn't even register his surprise that both of them had done so well. The only thing he wanted to do after Hogwarts was become an Auror and now he would never get that chance. He didn't feel like going on, but there was one grade left to read off. "Transfiguration- you got an A."

"You too." Ron didn't say much. He could tell Harry was bothered and didn't want to push it. He'd been on the explosive side of Harry's temper before and knew better than to upset him further. They switched grade sheets so that each person had his own results and sat silently.

Harry was crestfallen. He looked at the parchment in his hand and stared at the Potions grade. An E. Harry decided that E was the ugliest letter in the alphabet. He threw the parchment aside and dropped backwards onto the bed, stretching his legs out and staring at the ceiling, feeling darker than he had all day. A year ago, Harry never would have imagined being this upset over a Potions grade. Deep in his thoughts, he barely noticed Ron opening the Hogwarts letters.

"Lot of stuff this year. Hope we can afford it all. Of course you won't have a problem." Harry knew Ron didn't like that the Weasleys were poor, but was too upset to say anything. Ron was still reading the letters. "We have to get Platinum Cauldrons this year for Potions. Do you know how many Galleons they are! Expensive, mate."

Harry answered Ron roughly, "You'll have to tell me since I won't be taking it."

"Why not?" Ron asked, dumbfounded. Harry didn't want to deal with Ron's obliviousness, but sighed deeply and answered him anyway.

"I won't be taking it. You have to get an O in Potions or you can't take the class. I only got an E." Harry felt his sadness being overtaken by anger. Who came up with this stupid rule anyway? Snape! It was all Snape's fault! Not only is he ruining Hogwart's, but he's ruining the future as well. Harry was interrupted from his thoughts by Ron talking.

"I don't know who told you that, mate, but you're definitely taking it. You're down to buy all the supplies and everything. Look."

Confusion replaced his anger and Harry snapped upright. He snatched the parchment out of Ron's hand and looked at it in amazement. "A Platinum Cauldron, a N.E.W.T. level potions kit, and 'The Advanced User's Guide to Powerful Potions.' How can this be?" Harry felt relief spread throughout his body. The despair that had overwhelmed him was lifting and he stood up as the full realization hit him! He was going to be an Auror!

Ron shook his head. "I don't know how it happened, mate, but I'm not looking forward to seeing Snape again." Harry didn't care about that. At that moment he cared about one thing and one thing only, he was taking N.E.W.T. level potions and he was on his way to being Auror!


	5. Chapter Five

**Special Thanks to bandgsecurtiyaw for your reviews. It helps keep me going knowing that at least one person is reading this story. This is Chapter 5, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated characters, etc. belong to JK Rowling. The idea of Dawn belongs to Joss Whedon.**

* * *

The last week of the summer holiday was rather uneventful. Luna did come by on Saturday, but she spent most of her time with Ginny and Dawn so Harry didn't see her much. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. There was relief that he didn't have to be on his guard around the quirky blond, but there was a bit of disappointment too. As much as he hated to admit it he had come to like her and respect her and wanted to spend more time with her. Her oddities aside, Luna had an interesting way at looking at life and he wanted to explore her mind further. 

Instead, he found himself rather bored. Ron had left his homework for the last minute as usual and Harry was left alone much too often. The irony that he wanted to be alone and didn't like it when he was, was not lost on him. It only added to his frustrations. He had started counting the days until they would be heading back to Hogwart's. They would all be staying at The Leakey Cauldron Saturday and Sunday, and then on to King's Cross Station. Between the Grangers, the Weasleys (including the Potter children), and the Lovegoods they had booked an entire floor; even Fred and George were going to be staying with them. Harry was looking forward to the weekend and was hoping for a few good laughs.

* * *

It was the Tuesday before term started and once again he found himself alone. Before, when he was at the Dursley's, he found himself wanting solitude, but now that he had it he wanted nothing less. Ron was busy with homework, the girls didn't want him hovering around, and Mrs. Weasley was doing secret things for the Order. So, like he often did when he was alone, he worked his way to his favorite spot in the garden, on a fallen log next to the small pond. Harry liked it because he was hidden from view by the large hedge and he could sit and watch the fish and the water skimmers and the dragonflies buzzing over. It was really the most serene place at The Burrow, which was definitely saying something in a house that often held seven people; nine if Bill and Charlie were home, and more if there was company. Harry liked the Weasleys, but sometimes it was just too much to handle. 

Harry let his mind wander as often happens he found his thoughts turning to Sirius. Horrible images kept leaping into his mind. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Sirius falling through the veil or Sirius being chased by Dementors, or a drunk and lonely Sirius imprisoned in Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Sometimes it all came to him at once; jumbles of black cloaks and veils and scraggled black hair. Sometimes he thought back on fourth year when Voldemort came back to power, and on Cedric and Wormtail. It was too much for anyone to handle, much less a sixteen year old orphan boy who was a famous wizard and who was both loved and hated by the Wizard World, where there was a death prophecy hanging over his head and everybody was out to hurt him and where everything he loved was taken away and…

Harry sprang up and turned his wand on the hedge behind him. Something had moved, he was sure of it, and he wasn't caught off guard. He stared into the brush, keeping his wand raised, and said loudly, "Come on out! I know you're there!"

Harry felt a wave of relief wash over him as he recognized the petite form of Luna Lovegood. She, on the other hand, strolled out of the bushes as if she came through hedges everyday. "Hello, Harry," she said as she walked toward him. "Mind if I sit?" She pointed at the log bench where Harry had been sitting and without waiting for an answer she sat and opened The Quibbler. Harry was still standing, he hadn't yet gotten over his shock, and he had a look of confusion plastered on his face. He hesitated before taking his seat at the other end of the log.

Luna spoke first. "There's something on your mind."

"Obviously," Harry said with a sneer. He wasn't in the mood for a discussion right now and was still angry at being startled by Luna's unusual arrival. He was letting his emotions control him again.

"Yes, well… Daddy often tells me I like to state the obvious. So do you want to tell me what it is?" Luna wasn't at all upset with Harry's unpleasant answer, which he was grateful for.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Harry said, "I just don't know what's what any more."

Luna gave Harry a long, penetrating stare, roving her eyes up and down his body, taking in every essence of his appearance. He was just starting to become uncomfortable when she began talking. "No, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Or not say. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. I have my Daddy's magazine, you know." She lifted the Quibbler to draw his attention to it and quietly opened the magazine onto her lap and began reading.

Harry was at a loss of what to do. He had come to the garden to be alone, but he had been alone too much lately and it hadn't been making him feel any better. He looked to Luna and began to say something, but stopped before he made any sound. How do you begin talking about something so personal, so painful, so confusing, with somebody you really don't know all that well. Harry thought back to that day in the corridor and how of all people Luna was the only one that made him feel better, if only a little. Harry started once more. "Do you remember that day in the corridor?"

Luna marked her place and set down her magazine, giving Harry her full attention. "Which day?"

Harry thought it was obvious, but then to Luna maybe it wasn't. "When we talked about Thestrals and… and your Mother." He stumbled over that last part, not wanting to be the cause of any pain. Luna nodded her head as if this sort of question was commonplace. "I still think of him… Sirius, I mean. I can't get over that he's… no longer with us," Harry said, using the euphemism to avoid the word 'dead'. He still couldn't bring himself to face the finality of the word.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked. Harry's ire began to grow. How could a Ravenclaw be so daft? "He's always with us."

Harry interrupted. "If you're going to give me some nonsense about 'he's always in your heart' or 'you carry him inside you', then forget it." He hadn't meant to snap like that, but some people just didn't understand. Harry knew he would never forget Sirius and didn't need another corny phrase being spouted at him from yet another person who didn't understand him. He glanced at Luna, expecting her to be upset at his outburst, but she was as serene as always.

"Godric Gryffindor died over one thousand years ago. As did Merlin. Jesus died two thousand years ago. Gandhi died decades ago. They are all still with us. They changed the world for the better. Sirius did, too. For you to sit here and mope and sulk is not what Sirius lived for. And it isn't what he died for, either." Luna's voice was rising with the force of righteous anger. "I never knew him, but Sirius was a good man and he suffered a lot, and I'm not going to allow him to suffer more because some sixteen year old boy can't get over himself."

Harry was shocked by her outburst. The only time he had seen Luna truly angry was when Hermione criticized The Quibbler. He hadn't been aware just how much fire burned under her cool exterior. He kind of liked it. He asked his next question rather calmly. "How do you know he was a good man?"

"Because you do," was Luna's only response. Harry must have looked rather pitiful because her expression softened before she continued. "I know you're grieving, Harry, and it's a normal reaction, and a necessary one. But you can't stop living your life. Sirius was imprisoned for twelve years in Azkaban and spent the rest of his life on the run. Ginny told me he spent the last year of his life virtually imprisoned at headquarters. Don't spend the rest of your life imprisoned in your grief."

For Harry this was a revelation. He saw what he had been doing to himself and considered Luna's point. It was disrespectful to Sirius for Harry not to live his own life. Like Luna said it would cause Sirius to suffer if he saw Harry like this. And hadn't she said before they would see each other again? He would no longer put up his walls and trap himself in his own despair. He could still grieve for Sirius without shutting down himself completely and he would do whatever he could, whenever he could, to honor Sirius the only way he could… by living.

* * *

The next few days were far more enjoyable to Harry. He still pined for Sirius and found himself grieving, but he now had a confidant in Luna and she kept him from falling too deeply into despair. After constantly finding him alone and despondent Luna invited him to spend time with the girls. Although he was kind of the odd-one-out, he found himself enjoying spending time with his sister and Ginny, and especially Luna. He was hardly aware when it happened, but somehow she became another member of their close-knit group. Ron and Hermione would always be special, but Harry found joy in expanding his circle, even if it was his little sister and her school-chums.

* * *

The week finally drew to a close and Harry and Dawn, along with everybody else, readied their things for the big trip to Diagon Alley. Friday night was their last night in The Burrow and Dawn had something special planned. She had never understood why they had never had a burial for Sirius. To be properly honored, there must be a ceremony, she reasoned, and Sirius never had one. So after dark, a bonfire was started and everyone took turns giving a sort of eulogy, telling their favorite Sirius story to the group. Dawn went first, followed by Mrs. Weasley. Ron told the story of how his leg was broken that night under the Whomping Willow, and put such a spin on it that everyone laughed, while Ginny showed him up by telling a story that would have had Mrs. Weasley furious had Sirius still been alive. Ginny's story involved herself, Sirius in his Animagus form, a bucket full of stunned Doxies, and some skullcap powder. Harry got lost halfway through and never did figure out what the Spell-o-tape and the rubber gloves were used for. He himself recounted the time he saw Sirius at the Quidditch stadium and thought there was a Grim. He would have felt rather foolish about it, but Mr. Weasley followed with a very similar story that had happened just after the adoption of Grimmauld Place as order headquarters. Luna had never met Sirius, so for her part she took an old copy of the Quibbler's "Stubby Boardman" article, and folded it into a figure of a small dog. The group grew solemn, and as had been arranged previously, Mr. Weasley charmed the origami figure so that it would move and bark, before handing it to Harry. Harry gave it a loving pat on the head, before passing it to Dawn, who said a few final words, unfolded the page, and put it to the fire. Only then was the ceremony complete and Sirius was properly laid to rest. 

He never told Dawn, but Harry was glad for that night and felt like Sirius had been with them then as they laughed and told stories. He went to bed late that night, but woke up feeling more refreshed than he had in a long while, just in time for the trip to Diagon Alley.

* * *

Saturday came upon them and Harry couldn't have been happier. He had slept well and woke up in an optimistic mood, but it seemed he was the only one. Mrs. Weasley was running back and forth in her usual bustling manner, making sure everybody had their things for school since they wouldn't be coming back. Ron woke up grouchy and Ginny and Dawn were a little since Luna had flooed home early to be with her father. And then just as they were getting ready to leave for Diagon Alley Ginny's suitcase fell off the handle and spilled books and clothes everywhere. It was too much for Mrs. Weasley's frazzled nerves and she launched into one of her booming tirades. The trip Harry had been looking forward to all week started out horribly and Harry couldn't wait to get back to school where things would quiet down. One glance at Dawn confirmed she felt the same way.

Never a fan of the floo network, Harry was glad when the trip was over and he landed on his feet in The Leaky Cauldron. Actually, he would have fallen over had Ron not been there to catch him. He caught Dawn as she came through the grate, followed by Mrs. Weasley and Ginny, who were of course used to traveling by floo and didn't need the help. Once the group was assembled they headed for the brick wall and into Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was just as busy as Harry remembered it being on the day before school and they agreed to split up, but to meet back at the Leaky Cauldron for dinner. Harry and Ron made a beeline for the Quidditch shop to look at the new styles of brooms. Harry was happy to see that his Firebolt was still top of the line, but noted that it was being approached upon by the new Cleansweep 77. They reunited with Dawn and Ginny at Madam Malkin's where the girls were going over the newest styles. This year it was fashionable for girls to wear long robes that trailed the ground as they walked and they were discussing the relative merits of each minute difference in style. Some of them were all right, but Harry wondered how useful they would be for everyday wear. It would be much too easy to get your feet caught and trip and he silently gave thanks that he wasn't a girl and didn't have to worry about that sort of thing.

He was just about to voice that opinion to Ron when his eye was drawn to a strangely dressed man walking past the window. Harry didn't know what it was, but something about the man didn't seem right. He tried to point him out, but the man had passed before he could get Ron's attention.

After buying their new robes the four of them, two Weasleys and two Potters, stopped at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Stand to recharge their energy. The group spent some time laughing and joking around while eating their ice cream before Harry saw the man he had seen outside Madame Malkin's. He pointed him out to the group and commented that the man didn't seem to appear like he belonged. The robes he was wearing were an unusual dark brown color and were rather heavy for this time of year. The front was tied with a simple hemp belt, he wore no cap, and his shoes were more slippers than anything else. And just as unusual as his clothes was his demeanor. He looked like he was afraid something would be catching up with him every minute. He kept looking over his shoulder as he walked and didn't seem to have any idea where he was going. He was hopping from store to store, like he was trying to escape something, or was looking for something, or maybe both. He even walked past Fred and George's Joke Shop three times in succession, seemingly unaware that he had done it before. Harry's heart leapt to his throat when the man turned toward the group and caught Harry's eye. Harry saw the familiar flash of recognition when the man realized who he was and then thought he saw relief flash over the man's features before Harry looked away. When he looked back to the crowd the mystery man was nowhere to be seen.

None of the group could quite place what it was about this mystery man that had them spooked, and Harry couldn't explain why the man made him nervous, but it led to a more subdued atmosphere than before. They finished their ice cream in silence and went off to do more shopping. The first stop was Flourish and Blott's where there long lines of Hogwarts students buying this term's books. It was here that Ron spotted Hermione. She entertained them with stories of her summer traveling while they entertained her with their stories of The Burrow. She was especially interested in the funeral they had held for Sirius.

"Well I think it was a fine idea," she began, "I don't know why there wasn't one to begin with. Surely the Order could have taken the time to do it."

"We haven't heard much about the Order this summer," Harry said, "I'm not even sure what they're up to." He was interrupted by a sharp pain in his calf, courtesy of Dawn.

"Shut up," she said through gritted teeth and pointed out the reason for her concern. Draco Malfoy had just sauntered through the door.

"Move aside, move aside," he said as he pushed his way toward the head of the line. He was making good progress, too, until he came to Harry's group. Ginny was the first to stop him.

"No you don't, Malfoy. We've been waiting patiently and I'm not giving up my spot to you."

"What do you know about it, you blood traitor. Hasn't your family sunk low enough? Now you have to create a bigger problem by blocking me? Now out of the way!" Draco went to push Ginny aside but found Ron's wand blocking his path.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be, Malfoy?" You always knew Ron meant business when he used his confident voice. "I hear there's plenty of cells in Azkaban. You can get a seat next to Daddy."

Draco reddened, in embarrassment or anger Harry couldn't tell, and backed away from the group. Harry hoped he would just leave, but Draco seemed to feel the need to get the last word. "You'll be sorry one day, Weasley. With father no longer in the picture I'm due to inherit the Malfoy fortune once I come of age. Then we'll see who finds themselves in Azkaban." He then turned and stormed out.

"He can't do it," Hermione began. "Having money doesn't mean he can run the Ministry."

Ron cut her off, "Well, Lucius always got whatever he wanted didn't he? Remember Buckbeak? I doubt it'll be any different when Draco does it." Harry smiled to himself as he thought of what Madame Bones had told him, but chose to remain silent. The others would find out soon enough.

The group chatted and talked freely until they reached the counter, bought their books and left. Hermione still had a bit of shopping to take care of, but the others were nearly done. Dawn still needed a wand, while Ron and Harry hadn't yet bought potion supplies. Ron, Harry, and Hermione started toward the apothecary, but Ginny and Dawn decided to split from the group and head to Ollivander's.

"Don't get lost," Harry joked as they left, but a few minutes later Ron noticed they were looking in the windows at Madam Malkin's again. "There better still be gold in our vault after you're done," Harry yelled to Dawn just she walked through the entrance. She chose to remain silent, and returned his comment with a rather rude one-fingered gesture.


	6. Chapter Six

**I wish to say thank you to my two reviewers for Chapter 5 - bandqsecurtiyaw** **and HaRrYrOxMuhSoX. I like what happens in this chapter, and this scene was one of those that inspired this story, but it's true significance won't be apparent for a couple of chapters yet. I don't know that I did justice to what my idea was, but I'm still new at it all. Anyway, I enjoy your reviews and hope to see more of them for future chapters. **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related materialsare owned by JK Rowling. The idea of Dawn is owned by Joss** **Whedon.**

* * *

Dawn and Ginny stopped by the apothecary before heading for Ollivander's. Harry and Ron were just finishing ringing out their school supplies, Hermione clucking her tongue impatiently all the while. After the witch passed Harry his change Dawn began pestering him.

"Come to Ollivander's with me," Dawn asked. "That man creeps me out." Harry put up a light resistance but her incessant pleading won out. So the five of them worked their way across the busy marketplace of Diagon Alley and in front of Ollivander's store. Just as they reached the door, however, one of Ron's bags split, spilling potion ingredients throughout the cobblestone street. Some of the liquids mixed together and a foul smoke began to rise.

The group stopped, Ron started cursing under his breath and Hermione bent down to begin cleaning the mess. Harry began taking an inventory of the things that needed to be replaced and he and Ginny headed back to the apothecary to replace them.

Dawn wasn't sure where she was needed most, but seeing as she was left standing with Ron and Hermione she started to help with the cleaning effort, but Hermione shooed her off. "This mixture is pretty dangerous. Let Ron and I take care of that. You go and get your wand. Sometimes it takes awhile to find the right one, anyway."

"I don't like that guy," Dawn said and gave Hermione a pleading look that clearly said 'I don't want to go in there alone.' But Hermione was busy neutralizing the spilled potion ingredients and either didn't notice or flat-out ignored Dawn's pleading, while Ron was still fretting over what his mother's reaction would be, so Dawn entered the store alone, albeit with a timid step.

As she closed the door behind her, Dawn was somewhat relieved that Mr. Ollivander wasn't to be seen. She walked to the counter and took a deep breath before ringing the bell. His skinny and hunched form, gaunt from age, appeared at once from behind a stack of shelves, the grisly gray hair on his balding head standing out in all directions. He looked at her appraisingly and it seemed to Dawn that he saw straight through her. His eyes were pale silver and didn't blink the whole time he was watching Dawn. Dawn broke the stare, her eyes danced timidly side to side before as she waited for him to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

"Umm, I need a new wand," Dawn said, thinking it was obvious. "My last one was broken."

Mr. Ollivander didn't pay her words any mind. "There's no one in there." Dawn felt the blood retreat from her face. Ollivander pointed a crooked old finger directly at her face. "It's empty. Skin's too tight." He was muttering under his breath and Dawn couldn't make out all the words.

"What- what are you talking about?" she asked with a bit of fear. Ollivander's eyes suddenly lost their blank stare and began darting back and forth furiously, seemingly trying to take it all in at once.

"It's here. It's here. It's here. It's here. It's here…" Ollivander repeated the phrase over and over and each time stepping closer to Dawn. She hurriedly backed towards the door. Her breath was coming in short bursts and her heart beating madly; her fear rose within her and she felt a pressing need to run away. She reached the door and fumbled for the knob, but just as her fingers felt the cool metal it turned of its own accord. She screamed and turned to run, pulling open the door as she went.

She ran smack into Harry.

"Harry," Dawn cried in relief and she felt tears rolling down her face. She was so glad to see Harry, he could make everything better. Harry embraced her, she was shaking, and worked their way into the lobby of Ollivander's. He led her to a chair and turned to the old wizard for help.

"Oh, Mr. Potter. How good to see you," Ollivander seemed surprised at Harry's entrance. "And young Miss Potter, what a pleasant surprise to see the two of you today. Of course, I have heard about the unfortunate accident with your wand, Miss Potter, and I have been expecting your appearance." The old man seemed perturbed at Dawn's upset state.

"What just happened?" demanded Harry. "Why is my sister crying?"

"I have no idea what could be the matter. Is there anything I can do to help?" Harry shook his head no, bewildered at the situation. "Please take all the time you need," Mr. Ollivander said, then busied himself behind the counter while Dawn regained her control.

"You… y-you… said s-s-something to me. You said 'nothing's in there'" Dawn was trying hard to regain her composure, but her eyes were still watery and her voice was shaking. "That I was empty, my skin's too tight." She shot him a nervous glare, but only saw the wandmaker standing bewildered behind the counter.

"How odd, Miss Potter, I recall saying no such thing. You are sure? Aren't you?" He was clearly uncomfortable with the girl's tears. "Of course you're sure. Why, when you walked in with your brother just now is the first I've seen of you in many years." He was flustered and seemed sincere when he said he didn't remember. He also didn't seem to be used to seeing girls cry, Harry noted. "Would… would you like something to drink," he offered to try and soothe the girl.

"No. I'll… I'll be fine," Dawn said, hoping it was true. "Just give us a minute?"

"Of course," Mr. Ollivander replied and shuffled back to his workstation. Dawn turned to Harry.

"He did. He did say something." She was emphatic about it. "But he doesn't remember." A few last tears escaped down her cheek. Harry looked to her, worried.

"Do you want to come back later? We don't have to get your wand today." His concern for her outweighed everything else and Dawn pulled herself together.

"No, I just want it over with and to get out of here." With that she walked to the counter and rang the small bell. Mr. Ollivander must have been waiting for her because he appeared instantly.

"Ah. Are we ready now?" he asked. Dawn nodded in reply. "Good." The familiar magic tape measure began taking its measurements, and while Dawn tried standing perfectly still it was rather difficult as the measure seemed to have a sense about finding the places that were the most ticklish. She tried to keep her mind off of it and listen to Mr. Ollivander. "I hope everything is all right with you, my dear. I have no shame in saying I have a soft spot where you and your brother are concerned. Are you sure you wouldn't like a refreshment?"

"Thank you, but I'm fine." Dawn was warming up to the old man. He genuinely seemed to care for her well being, his eyes were kindly and confirmed his sincerity, and mannerisms she had thought were creepy she now saw as a consequence of age and the solitude of wand making. The pale, unblinking eyes, although unchanged, were warm and friendly, and didn't scare her the way they had when she was younger. She smiled at him softly and answered his question. "I don't want to spoil my dinner." Harry gave her a look, he knew she was just being polite, but decided not to call her on it after her scare.

"Of course not. Let's get started shall we," Ollivander said, a soft smile gracing his features and making him seem even more fatherly than before. He then flicked his wand causing the tape measure to roll itself up and place itself in a drawer. He then handed her a wand. "Try this one for starters. Quite long, fourteen inches. Made of butternut and ash, with a core of unicorn tail." Dawn waved the wand, but nothing happened.

"No. That's not it," he said grabbing another wand off the shelf. "How about this one? Eleven inches, rosewood and dragon claw."

Another dud.

"Twelve and a half inches," he began, handing her another wand, "Musclewood and Hippogriff talon."

They worked through wand after wand, some as short as nine inches, and some nearly as long as Hagrid's. There were all kinds of woods, from oak and pine, to ebony, rosewood, and holly. There were cores from every part of every beast imaginable. They were building up an impressive display of unsuitable wands and still hadn't found one suited to her. Ginny came in to see what was taking so long and was astonished to see Dawn trying wand after wand with no end in sight. Ginny went out to get Ron and Ron got Hermione. Soon enough Ollivander's was packed with people, the Weasley's were there, as were the Lovegoods, who had apparently just arrived, Neville Longbottom with his grandmother, even a few passersby who had noticed what was going on and stopped to stare.

The discard pile continued to grow and, while Dawn was getting more discouraged with each failure, Mr. Ollivander got more excited. Harry found it remarkably fascinating and was counting the wands as the pile grew. "146, 147, 148. What's the record anyway," he asked. Ollivander paused for just a moment.

"Three hundred and ninety four. No reason to get discouraged, I have thousands of wands at the ready. We will find one for your sister, yet."

There were a couple of false starts, one wand started to produce sparks as Dawn touched it, but quickly put itself out as she grasped it into her hand. Another caused all the candles to go out, although Dawn thought it was more likely due to the wind coming in through the open door. Whenever something like that happened the crowd groaned in disappointment, but Dawn was enjoying the attention and just giggled while Ollivander was nearly skipping with joy.

"I haven't had a customer this challenging in quite some time, Miss Potter, but I know there is a wand in here somewhere."

They continued trying wands and still hadn't found a match. Some of the crowd was getting anxious while others were getting impatient, but nobody was leaving. Harry had counted two hundred and thirteen when Ollivander stopped and looked blankly at the shelf. He thought for a moment and suddenly let out a shout and fairly ran into the back workshop. He returned quickly holding a long leather covered box, stained red and decorated with tassels of strange black hair. Dawn took the box and with Ollivander's encouragement removed the lid.

The red leather box was lined with pillowed white silk and nestled on top of that was a long, thin red colored wand. Dawn had never seen a wand so thin. She touched the base of the wand and immediately a shower of green lights erupted from the end and swirled around her. It was like being caught in a shower of glowing fall leaves. The lights floated and twirled around her, separating and combining into beautiful patterns which encompassed her in their light and left a pale glow on her cheeks. Though she couldn't see them Dawn could feel the excitement of the people in the crowd.

Dawn found herself wondering what one of the green lights would feel like. Would it be hot? would it be cold? Would it be painful, or would it be pleasurable? She reached out to touch one, but just before she made contact the spell lifted, the lights dissolved into tiny groups of sparkles, twinkling as they fell toward the floor, and then disappearing one by one, as if each was some tiny candle being put out by miniscule invisible hands. The glow from the spell faded and Dawn found herself back in the musty old wand shop, just a normal witch choosing her wand.

Her audience held a shocked silence and then burst into sudden applause. Never had a wand choosing been so exciting, so intriguing. Dawn barely recognized her brother's voice as he asked old Mr. Ollivander about the make of the wand.

"Yes," began Mr. Ollivander, although for once he seemed reluctant to answer. "The wood is from a Willow, Red Willow specifically…"

He was interrupted by Dawn. "Then why is it so thin? I've never seen a wand like this."

"No, I should think not," he gave her one of his trademark stares. "Just a month ago, I was traveling, collecting wand materials, you know, and there was one young tree, a sapling really, that the bowtruckles just wouldn't leave alone. I removed them carefully like I always do, and no sooner would I remove one than another would take its place. Such was the power of this young sapling they guarded it incessantly. The tree was such a small tree, but I knew it would be powerful and I just had to have some of it. There wasn't a single branch of adequate size, so I took just one of the new growths hoping to come back and collect more as the tree matured. The young twigs, they grow long and thin like that you see, and for the first few weeks the bark is that brilliant red color. As you can well imagine, that wand was quite difficult to make."

Dawn took in this information before asking, "Are there a lot of other wands made from this tree? This Red Willow?"

"Alas, no," he answered, "I went searching for it, of course, but never could find it. That Willow just seems to have up and moved on me. I have a couple of theories, actually…"

Harry interrupted the old wand maker before he could launch into another story. "Our mother's wand was Willow."

"Yes, it was Mr. Potter. An excellent wand at that. Quite swishy, it was especially good for charm work, as will be this one. Your sister's wand, actually, is a bit more powerful and will excel at any discipline."

"Willow," Dawn said. "I really like Willow, thank you. How much is it," she asked while fumbling with her bag.

"Ten galleons," was his automatic response, "a bit pricier than the average wand, but well worth it in my opinion. The box comes with." He held the box open in front of him and Dawn nestled the wand on the satin lining. She felt some force, some primal attraction, binding it to her, and she didn't really want to let go, but she did let her finger wander over the surface before releasing her grip.

Ollivander closed the box, then a thought crossed his mind and he opened it again. Taking the wand in both hands, Dawn gasped as he bent it completely around in a loop. "The nice thing about such young wood," he said, "is that it is much too flexible to break." The old man gave her a wink as he returned the wand to its box. "But please be careful just the same."

Dawn promised she would be and counted out her ten galleons while he placed it in its bag. She turned to leave, but stopped as Hermione rushed to the counter.

"Excuse me, sir," Hermione addressed the old wizard, "but I'm curious about the core of that wand." Dawn was so awed she had forgotten to ask one of the most important questions. She silently derided herself for that oversight.

"Oh, how careless of me," Ollivander apologized, "I get so carried away with my stories I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on straight, you know how old age is."

He gave Hermione a look and laughed. "Well, I'm sure you've read about it any way. Where was I? Oh yes, the core," Hermione's impatience was clear and Ollivander rushed to continue, "The core to that wand, Miss Potter, is Thestral Hair - Graciously donated by an animal I think you may be familiar with. Goes by the name of Tenebrius… He was one of Mr. Hagrid's first foals I believe. An unusual combination for sure, Thestral hair usually works best in Yew, or sometimes Holly, woods which have powerful connections to death." He glanced quickly at Harry, who instinctively flattened his hair over his scar. "This wand would take no other core, however. Surely, we can expect great things from you as well."

Harry snatched Dawn's hand and hurried to leave, dragging Dawn behind him. Taking this as their sign that the show was over the crowd began to disperse. Neville Longbottom stopped to greet the Potters and their crew, as did Luna Lovegood, and after they all promised to meet at the Leaky Cauldron, Neville shyly took his turn at the counter. Neville's wand had been broken at the Department of Mysteries too, Harry recalled, before he followed Hermione, Ginny, and Ron back into the street, still dragging Dawn behind.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Thanks to HaRrYrOxMuhSoX for your review. Here's installment 7. Next time I write a fanfiction I'm not going to worry about tying up the loose ends. JK Rowling is going to do that in Half Blood Prince and she will do a better job than I did, I'm sure. Anyway, this is the last of that sort of thing. There's even some action in installment 8, which is almost done.**

**Disclaimer: Harry and co. owned by JK Rowling. The idea of Dawn owned by Joss Whedon.**

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Harry was the first one awake that morning. For some reason he had been up in the night with the prophecy heavy on his mind and that was what was keeping him awake now. Sometime over the past few weeks he had made up his mind to tell his friends about it, reasoning that Dumbledore caused more pain by keeping it hidden, and Harry didn't want to do the same. Unfortunately he hadn't had a chance, yet. He wanted everyone to be present when he did it and the time hadn't come yet. Harry figured the first chance they would all have to be alone would be on the train and decided to tell everyone then, but he couldn't fall back to sleep after he made that decision. Now all he had to do was make sure they all got a compartment to themselves.

Which wasn't hard. They made it to King's Cross Station with only minutes to spare. It seemed to be a Weasley/Potter tradition to board the train at the last minute. Luckily this year there were plenty of hands to help load suitcases and owls and trunks. Harry, the last of the group to board, stepped onto the stairway just as the doors were closing. With a quick wave to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley he turned to follow the rest.

Ron and Hermione headed for the prefect's cabin and the rest of the group went to try and find a compartment of their own. As often happened there was one open compartment right at the end and Luna and Neville managed to claim it for the group. The five of them staked out their seating arrangement and somehow Neville ended up pushed between Luna and Dawn. He didn't appear to be at all comfortable with that arrangement. Harry and Ginny shared the opposite bench with Harry closest to the door and directly opposite Luna. He felt his heart beat a little faster with that realization and then chastened himself for it. 'It's just Luna. What do I have to be worked up about,' he thought to himself and tried to start a conversation with Ginny to distract himself.

"We were lucky to get the last compartment, I guess, huh?" It was lame, he knew, but it was the only thing that popped into his mind. Luna answered.

"There's always an extra compartment. The train is enchanted. There was an article in the Quibbler about it a few months ago, didn't you see it?"

Harry wasn't sure how to best answer. Luna's ferocious defense of the Quibbler flashed to his mind and before he could stop it he thought of how cute she was when she was riled over something. Unwittingly, a blush crept onto his cheeks and he only managed to stutter out a weak "no."

That launched Luna into a long discussion on the various enchantments that had been cast on the Hogwart's Express, although some of things she claimed, like the train having the ability to turn into a sheep to escape Muggle detection, Harry didn't quite believe. One topic led to another and they passed the time talking about enchantments on the train, the castle, brooms, and inevitably Quidditch. They were speculating on who would take the place of Gryffindor's captain when Ron and Hermione returned.

The two of them managed to find room in the cramped compartment, and even though it was a bit of a tight fit all seven of them were able to squeeze in. The snack lady came around just as they were settling in and as she left Harry made sure to shut the door behind her. He wasn't looking forward to revealing the prophecy, but was determined to keep to his resolution. If he didn't say something now he never would.

The conversation and chatter died down while the group was opening and eating their snacks, so Harry figured this was as good a time as any. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened his mouth to speak. "Guys there's something I have to tell you," he began and then stopped. The group waited patiently, all eyes were on Harry, but he was looking into the corridor and paid them no mind. Finally Hermione broke the silence.

"What is it Harry," she asked.

"Just wait a sec," he said and continued staring into the hallway. Suddenly the door opened, seemingly of its own accord, and Harry slammed it, catching Draco Malfoy's fingers in the process. Draco yelped in pain and pulled his hand back, giving Harry the time to close and lock the door both mechanically and magically. Then he placed a silencing charm on the compartment and turned back to his friends.

"That was bloody brilliant, Harry," said Ron, still watching Draco trying to break into the compartment through the glass. Harry decided to pull the curtain as well.

"Thanks," he said. "I don't want any interruptions." He felt he should have placed the wards to begin with and was glad they were there now, but it did nothing to slow the rapid beating of his heart. He still wondered how his friends would act once they knew he was destined to be a killer… or be killed himself. "It's about Voldemort, and why he tried to kill me as a baby."

Neville interrupted him, looked around uncomfortably, and began to stand. "Maybe I should leave, then. I don't want to intrude on something so, um…, personal." Harry reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Actually, this has more to do with me and you than it does anyone else in this room." Neville's confusion was obvious and Harry motioned for him to sit, although he didn't at first. "I want to tell everyone in this room, because we've all fought together before, and chances are we'll have to again. I think everyone here should know. The only reason I want anyone to leave is if they don't think they can keep it to themselves. There is only one other person who knows what I am about to tell you and I want it to stay that way."

"But why tell us at all, Harry?" asked Ginny while forcing Neville into his seat. "We might be in more danger if Voldemort finds out we know something."

Harry looked for fear in her face, but saw only concern for the others. He knew she would follow him anywhere, her and Ron and Hermione, and saw similar looks on all their faces. Except Luna's. He really couldn't tell what she was thinking. "I did think about that, but thought if you are going to fight, and I know you will even if I told you not to, you should know everything. Then you won't need to make the same mistakes I did."

No one raised any objections after that and Harry began his speech. He had it sort of rehearsed in his head and began that way. "Well, you know the prophecy that was in the Department of Mysteries? The one that broke?" Neville's face turned scarlet and Harry hastened to continue. "I know what it says." Hermione gasped and interrupted him.

"You said you didn't hear it! You lied to us!" Harry could see her begin to turn red with anger.

"No, no," he hurried to explain, "I didn't hear it then. Nobody did. But Dumbledore… Dumbledore knew what it said. He was the first one to hear the prophecy." He then launched into the story Dumbledore had told him last year, of Sybil Trelawny and the Hog's Head, of the eavesdropper and how Voldemort didn't know the whole story. He managed putting off telling them the prophecy itself until Neville asked him what Harry meant when he said it was between the two of them more than anyone else.

Harry closed his eyes and in a monotone recited the prophecy in full. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

The group stared at Harry in confusion, not truly comprehending what he had said, Hermione was deep in concentration, trying to figure it out. Harry brought it to the point. "I asked Dumbledore about 'One must die at the hand of the other.' It means Voldemort must kill me, or I must kill him."

Hermione was the first to react. "Kill or be killed? Oh Harry…" She moved in to hug him, but Harry pulled back. "Harry?"

"I don't want pity. I know what I have to do and I've prepared. I'm ready." He said it with a confidence he didn't quite feel.

Luna was the next to speak. "Power the Dark Lord knows not. Well, it can't be Parseltongue then."

"Dumbledore told me about that, too," he said with little emotion. "All he said was 'Love.'"

Dawn was sitting still, she could feel her face redden and her throat constrict. She couldn't lose Harry. He was the only family she'd ever had. As much as she tried to control it a strangled sob managed to escape and was followed by a succession others. She reached over and took Harry tightly in her arms. "I don't want you to die," she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Emotional one, isn't she," Ron commented. Harry glared at him; Hermione and Ginny did the same. "Sorry, I'll be quiet now."

"Yes, Ronald, you will." Luna said it with only the slightest hint of threat in her voice, but it was enough. Ron sat straight up in his seat, trying to look innocent, but Luna kept her eye on him. Ginny laughed a nervous giggle; it was out of place, but somehow lightened the mood. Soon Dawn let Harry free and returned to her own seat.

"Sorry, it's just lot to take in," she said. Hermione comforted her. Only Neville had remained silent.

Harry had noticed. He had been watching Neville, trying to gauge his reaction, and was worried when he didn't say anything. "Neville, are you all right," he asked, suddenly realizing he was giving Neville the same look of pity he saw in the others, the one that never ceased to anger him. He tried to force his face into an impassive look and wound up somewhere between a frown and a grimace. He said again, "Neville?"

Neville was staring at his hands, absently fiddling with his handkerchief. Without looking up he said, "It could have been me. I could be the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Yes, but Voldemort chose me instead," Harry said. "I don't know why he chose me, but Dumbledore says that by attacking me, and leaving the scar, he transferred some of his powers to me." He didn't really know how to finish. Was Neville jealous? Did he wish he was the one who was famous and always recognized wherever he went? Harry didn't know how to ask or how to tell him that he often wished to trade places with Neville for a day. After a short silence, which seemed to take forever, Neville glanced up for the first time since the prophecy had been told and caught eyes with Harry.

"I'm glad he didn't choose me. I don't know how you handle it, Harry. I'm not a hero like you."

Harry wasn't quite expecting that answer and had nothing to say. Luckily, Dawn said it for him, with her usual trite manner. "You don't need to be a hero, Neville. You just need to be you."

Ron apparently found this to be too much, even from Dawn. He stuck his finger in his throat and made a wretching noise, which earned a punch on the arm from Ginny. "That didn't hurt," he said until Dawn gave him a harder punch on the other side. "Hey, not that hard," he yelped, before turning to Harry and not so subtly changing the subject. "I'm glad you're back on the Quidditch pitch this year, mate…" Although it was an obvious attempt to get out of trouble Harry was glad to let the previous topic rest and talk of the prophecy was forgotten as they delved into more typical conversation.

Neville kept to himself the rest of the trip. He was thinking of what he had just learned and was completely sincere when he told Harry he was glad it wasn't him. Sure, there were times he wished he had Harry's talent, or his ability to make friends, and he would liked to be noticed once in a while, but he didn't want the sort of responsibilities or to be in the sort of danger Harry had. He also found himself wondering what exactly Dawn had meant by what she said. Sure she might have just been trying to make him feel better, but there was a truthfulness when she said it and he preferred to think on that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters, places, etc. are owned by JK Rowling. The idea of Dawn is owned by Joss Whedon. Additional author's note at bottom.**

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The remainder of the train ride was uneventful and the group soon found themselves at Hogsmeade station. They piled into two separate coaches - Harry, Ron, and Hermione chose one and Neville, Ginny and Luna took another. Dawn was still out looking for Tenebrius to thank him for the core of her wand, and was disappointed when she didn't find him; she wanted to ask Hagrid about it, but he was busy with the first years and she would have to do it another time. When she returned Harry offered her a seat, but she decided to ride in the other carriage instead. "It's just because those are the people in my year," she told him, but he wasn't so sure. Anyway, it was the first time he had been alone with both Ron and Hermione since the previous year. As he expected they instantly launched into a round of questions about the prophecy.

"I already told you everything," he said, his frustration evident, and wishing he hadn't said a thing to anyone. He momentarily thought of the other carriage and wondered what Luna thought of it. He was starting to think that maybe he liked her, and was becoming warm to the idea, but he pushed that thought aside for the moment and listened to Hermione.

"I was thinking of the 'one must die at the hand of the other' part," she started out. "Prophecies are tricky even in the best of circumstances and I for one have trouble believing anything that came from Trelawny. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to murder him. It could mean something else entirely. Either way, it doesn't really matter does it?"

Ron was looking at her with a face full of confusion. "What! I'd say it matters! I'd much rather Voldemort die than Harry!" he said.

"Well, of course, that's not what I meant. What I meant was… what are you going to do in school this year Harry?"

"I don't know," he said. "I guess… go to classes and do my homework and play Quidditch and stuff. Why?"'

Hermione ignored the question. "And what would you do if the prophecy had never been made?" She answered her own question. "Go to classes and do your homework, and play Quidditch, right? So nothing's really changed."

"Oh," was all that Harry could say at that moment.

"You're brilliant," Ron said as he gave her a large smile. She blushed and mumbled a quick thank you and the carriage was suddenly very quiet.

Harry was staring out into the dark and thinking about what Hermione had said. Now that he knew about the prophecy he'd have to be careful of Voldemort, but then again, he'd always had to be careful, even in his first year. He started to feel all right about it and the weight lifting from his shoulders. Just then a small flash of light outside caught his eye.

"I've got to go," he said and bolted out the carriage door, not giving Ron and Hermione any sort of explanation. The carriage then pulled beyond the corner before they could follow.

Harry landed hard, losing his footing on the gravel roadway, before pulling himself up and running toward the grove of trees. Someone had thrown a powerful curse, he was sure of that, and in the light cast by the spell he had seen the man in brown robes who had followed them around Diagon Alley. Harry didn't know exactly how he knew, but he knew someone was in trouble and he acted without thinking.

As he neared the grove he saw there were two people, the brown-robed wizard, and a witch who was wearing a set of bright red robes and no hat. The witch had the man pinned to the ground with some sort of spell, although Harry was behind her and couldn't see her wand. He didn't think she knew he was there. Dark magic was radiating off of her and Harry nearly trembled at the power. The woman spoke.

"Where is my key?" she said, the anger evident in her voice. "You have it and I want it back."

The man on the ground said nothing; he just looked up at her in fear. The woman walked over to him and bent down, brushing the lint off his robe in a motherly way. When she next spoke it wasn't with the angry tones she had used earlier, her words were intoned with a syrupy sweetness that belied the malice behind her words.

"Sweetie," she said, and her voice reminded Harry of Dolores Umbridge. "There's no use hiding anything from me. I know, and you know, that I'll get what I want sooner or later, so why don't we just stop all the fighting and you can get me my key? What do you say? All this nasty pain will stop if you'd just finish this sentence for me 'You can get your key if you go…' Where?"

Harry decided he had seen quite enough. He didn't know much about the situation, but he could see the woman becoming more and more tense as she continued her questioning. He figured he had to stop her before she hurt someone worse than she already had. Harry slowly pulled his wand from its holster, took careful aim and spoke the first curse that came into his mind. "Petrificus totalus!"

The curse sped from his wand and hit the red-robed witch square in the back. To Harry's astonishment the spell had no effect and the woman calmly stood up and turned toward her attacker. Harry's heart beat wildly when he saw the malevolent look of pleasure on her face. He swore under his breath and just knew he was her new target.

Harry stood poised, waiting for the evil witch to make the first move. He didn't have to wait long; she mumbled something under her breath, Harry wasn't sure what, and a red light flew toward him. He jumped to the side and dodged it, and had to move again to miss being hit by a second. A third shattered the tree behind him leaving a mass of charred and splintered wood. He ran instead for another tree that was closer, but the flames reached it before he did. He tried quickly to run in the other direction, but as he did his left foot got caught up in his robes and he fell to the ground hard. He tried to get up and felt a high heeled boot touch his back and hold him down. It was compacting his rib cage and he had trouble drawing breath. He knew then the fight was over, he hadn't even thrown one effective curse, and he had no idea what the red-robed witch had planned for him.

Harry felt some of the pressure on his back release and was commanded to roll over. He complied, and for the first time got a good look at the woman. She was young to be so powerful, she couldn't have been more than a year or two out of school, and hadn't seemed to have been changed the way Voldemort and Bellatrix had. Her hair was blonde, though it looked dyed, and fell over her shoulders in waves. It was thick, but not as bushy as Hermione's, and it fell onto her neck unrestrained. Harry noticed that her lipstick was the same bright red as her robes and had a fleeting thought that this woman must spend a lot of time on her appearance. She looked down on him with large blue eyes and he thought he could have been quite attracted if she wasn't so evil. Her eyes held a hint of her malice and she replaced her red high heeled boot on his body, this time on his rib cage, effectively trapping him to the ground. She was the first to speak.

"Who do you think you are?" She didn't wait for a response. "Can't you see I'm having a conversation with the monk here?" She motioned in the man's direction and Harry finally understood the poor brown robes. So, the man was a monk. The witch turned her attention back to Harry and switched to that overly sweet voice. "Hey, you wouldn't know where I can find my key would you? 'Saint Francis' over here isn't talking which really kind of ticks me off, you know? Him and his stupid 'Order' are hiding it from me and I just want to get it back. It belongs to me! So what do you say, huh? Just a little hint?"

Harry was struck by how informal her speech was, it especially contrasted with Voldemort's formal English. What was this 'Order?' Was it the Order of the Phoenix? He hadn't seen any monk there before and had never heard of the woman in the red robes. He gave her a hard look and said, "I don't know anything." She looked at him coldly, and put even more pressure on the heel, forcing it between Harry's ribs. He felt them bend and stretch and almost cried out in pain. Just when he was about to pass out she released him and turned back to the monk behind her.

"You know, when you stop to think about it I'm the victim here," she started. There was a sickening sort of desperation in her voice. "First off, I don't even want to be here, and I'm not talking about this room or this city or this planet. I'm talking about the whole mortal coil now, it's disgusting. All I want is the key! Why can't you tell me where the key is?"

The monk was breathing hard, they had obviously fought for some time before Harry had arrived, and there was blood trickling from the man's nose down to his lip. He forced it away with a sharp blast of breath and he continued panting heavily. When he spoke it was with an accent. Harry tried to place it and was suddenly reminded of Viktor Krum. Eastern Europe maybe? He strained to hear the words. "I… will tell you…," the monk said. The witch's face lit up and Harry wanted to stop him from saying anything. He didn't know much about the situation but he was sure if that woman got the key no good would come of it. He winced in anticipation of what the monk might say. "I will tell you… nothing." With his final word a grim look of determination replaced the wheezing gasps and the witch pulled at her hair in frustration.

"I bet this is fun for you isn't it," she said. It was almost scary how her voice showed no emotion, but as she continued the desperation again crept into her voice. "Say it. You like to torture me. Why? You don't even own the damn thing. And I want it and I need it and I've got to have it now and you keep refusing to tell me where the key is!"

She started pacing frantically and Harry could hear her choking down her sobs as she completely lost her composure, spewing words that barely made complete sentences, nonetheless any type of normal sense. "And it's typical… it's typical… it's typical. The whole mortal meat sack comes complete with stink and bile, sweat and protein. Yes, I said humans. Not now mommy's talking. Wriggling, piling, crawling, clowning, cavorting, doing it over and over and over and over until someone's gonna sit down on their tuffet and make this birthing stop!" Her last word bled into a scream of anger and suddenly the woman disappeared in a crush of white light.

"What was that!" Harry said, more to himself than anyone else. The monk answered.

"She," the monk said while pulling himself to his feet, "cannot be named." He gave Harry an appraising look and continued. "Thank you Harry Potter. I knew you were the right choice."

"How do you know my name," Harry asked before he could stop himself. It was obvious how the man knew his name. Everybody in the wizarding world knew him.

"I know more than that about you," the man responded, "You have a sister, do you not?" Without waiting for Harry's reply the man continued. "Protect her. She is more important than you to the coming battle." And leaving that cryptic statement as their only farewell the monk disapparated and Harry slowly walked his way up to the castle.

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**The woman in the red robes and the monk are owned by Joss Whedon and some of the witch's dialogue isquoted from the BTVSepisode "Out of My Mind."**


	9. Chapter Nine

**First, I had a complaint so I had to change the category. I considered it more a HP story than a BtVS crossover, but it is a crossover of sorts. It's better this way I suppose.**

**Second, thanks toNachocheez0for your review. And hope it doesn't disappoint you, but Harry will not be going dark in this story.**

**This is the necessary chapter to introduce the DADA professor and the great feast. Coming next chapter - Harry finds out what Dawn really is. Finally.**

**Disclaimer: HP characters owned by JK Rowling. The DADA professor and Dawn are owned by Joss Whedon.**

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Harry entered the Great Hall just as the food was appearing. Apparently he had missed the sorting, but he wasn't upset at that. He'd seen it enough times and nobody he knew was starting Hogwarts this year. He started for the Gryffindor table and was happy to see Ron and Hermione had saved him a place. A quick glance at the staff table revealed no new faces, there was an empty chair at the end of the table, but apparently no new Defense teacher as of yet. At least none of the teachers were missing. As soon as he took his seat he instantly had to wave off a field of questions.

"Guys, we'll talk about it later," Harry said, although he wasn't sure how much he wanted to tell them. He hadn't figured it out himself yet and wasn't up to trying to give the two of them answers. Dawn reached over and poked his shoulder.

"Where'd you go," she asked, with an accusatory tone. "Ron and Hermione said you bailed on them."

"I don't want to talk about it right now," he said. "Later okay?" She nodded hesitantly and he hastened to add "Thanks, but I'm all right. Later, okay?" That didn't settle her down much, but bought him some time. Harry reached for the garlic fried potatoes and started filling his plate before diving in hungrily.

He was halfway through the meal when Hermione grabbed his attention and pointed to the staff table. Someone had taken the empty chair at the end of the dais, a dark haired wizard wearing robes of pure white. Harry took a minute to take in the man's appearance. His skin was smooth and pale, not the unhealthy pasty color of a man who doesn't get into the sun, but fair, with a light rose hue. He was young, it might be his first year teaching, Harry thought, and well built, although not grotesquely large. The eyes were dark and matched his hair, which was a dark brownish black. Something about the way he sat seemed to draw attention and it took a minute for Harry to notice what it was. The pale skin and the white robes reflected and enhanced the candlelight so they almost seemed to glow. After his first impression Harry felt that he might be able to like this man and he turned back to his meal. He just needed to wait and see what kind of teacher he was before making any judgments.

"Harry Potter." Harry quickly turned around at the sound of his name and suddenly wished he hadn't. What did Professor Snape want? They weren't even one hour into the first day, he couldn't be in trouble already, could he? He tried to show his manners by standing to face the teacher, it was rude to remain seated, but the benches at the communal tables weren't easy to extricate oneself from with any sort of grace. Snape watched as Harry struggled out of his seat and offered no move to help, and didn't tell Harry to remain seated, though it would have been polite. He simply watched, barely concealing his amusement as the boy caught his foot between the bench and the table and nearly fell. It wasn't until Harry was fully standing that the Potions Master delivered his message. "The headmaster asked me to inform you that he would like to you to meet with him at the end of the feast. You are to remain behind when the rest of the students exit. That is all." Snape ended his message abruptly and strode back to the staff table, leaving Harry standing behind.

Harry sat down again, massaging his bruised rib and wondering what it was the headmaster would want. Ron was the first to ask the inevitable question. "What was that about?"

"The headmaster wants to see me after the meal," Harry replied. "No idea what for."

"Maybe he wants you to start Occlumency again," Hermione suggested. Harry scoffed at that. It wasn't that he thought it was a bad idea to learn Occlumency, but he couldn't help the word's association to those disastrous lessons with Snape. On top of that the pain in his rib was really starting to bother him, and he didn't want to get into a long involved discussion about it. Harry hoped his rib would stop hurting and he wouldn't have to visit the hospital wing for it. He'd had a long day and just wanted to finish his dinner and get some sleep.

"What's wrong with your rib, Harry?" He should have known Dawn would notice. He consciously moved his hand away from the bruise and onto the table.

"Nothing," he answered, knowing she wouldn't be satisfied.

"Come on, Harry. Something's obviously wrong." She was pleading and she knew it, but it was hard enough to get Harry to talk and she would use every trick in her arsenal to get him to open up.

"Later," he said and was surprised that she decided to let it go for now, but he knew she was already planning ways to get it out of him later in Gryffindor Tower.

Harry was one of the last to finish eating and had barely finished his pie when Dumbledore stood and the Great Hall became suddenly quiet. "Welcome, staff and students, to another year at Hogwarts. Now that you have filled your stomachs we have a year to fill your minds. I have a few start of term notices to give out. First years should note that the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds, and of course it would do well for the older students to be reminded of this as well. Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that there is to be no magic in the corridors and that the list of forbidden items has been expanded to include Fainting Fancies, Puking Pastilles, Extendable Ears, and a host of other products, many of them developed by Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. The full list is posted outside of his office." At the mention of the name Weasley Ron's ears started to turn red and Harry watched as he stared down a third year Hufflepuff boy that had turned to steal a glance. Harry turned his attention back to Dumbledore to catch the rest of his speech.

"Once again, we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to introduce. He has asked that you call him by his given name, so please welcome Professor Ben to the staff." There was a round of polite applause, although it wasn't much more than that. The students were used to having a new DADA professor introduced at the start of year feast and this was routine. Following Professor Ben's introduction the students were dismissed, though Harry remained behind to speak with the Headmaster.

Harry said a quick goodbye to Hermione and Ron, who left to take care of their prefect duties, and waited for the room to clear out before walking up to the staff table. He stood to wait just below the step of the dais straight in front of Dumbledore who was in conversation with Professor Snape and Professor Ben. It was Snape who was speaking when he arrived, though Harry hadn't caught the beginning of the conversation.

"… in these times more than ever. Hogwart's students have already had a substandard education in the Dark Arts. You are sending them to fight a war unprepared."

"I am not sending these students to fight a war, Severus," Dumbledore replied.

"War will find them. You may be able to protect them while they are in this castle, Albus, but you can not protect them when they leave the school. They must learn to defend themselves and a recent graduate with no experience in teaching and a questionable background is hardly the best candidate for the position." Harry knew what they were talking about. Apparently the potions master had been overlooked for the DADA job again and was letting off his anger at Dumbledore. Harry knew Snape could be vindictive, but was surprised to see him openly question the new professor's qualifications while the man was present, especially in front of a student. Harry checked Professor Ben's reaction and was impressed that he didn't appear upset at all. Instead there was a look of determination on the man's face when he spoke.

"I assure you I am quite capable, Professor Snape, and I will make every effort to give these students whatever it is they may need to succeed." Harry was impressed by the response and found himself warming to him again, but told himself that it was one thing to say you could teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and another thing to actually do it. He only hoped the man would prove to be as good a teacher as he hoped.

Dumbledore gave no outward reaction to the man's words and held the palm of his hand in a stop position as he spoke. "The decision has been made, Severus. Ben will teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and it is too late to change that. I expect to hear nothing further on the matter." Dumbledore then addressed Harry as if he had just arrived and hadn't been waiting awkwardly through the heated exchange. "Ah, Harry! How good to see you. Allow me to introduce to you Professor Ben, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, though you will get to know him soon enough in your classes, I imagine."

Harry stepped up onto the raised platform, shook the new professor's hand and exchanged pleasantries, but he doubted very much that that was what Dumbledore had wanted him for. He was proved right when Dumbledore resumed speaking.

"Of course, I didn't ask to meet with you just to introduce the new professor, although I am quite happy for the chance to do so. How has it been going with your Occlumency training? Did you find time to work on it over the summer?"

Harry wasn't sure how to respond. He had tried, but it had been a half-hearted effort and he hadn't made much progress. The dreams had stopped, but that may not have been his doing. With Voldemort remaining quiet Harry wasn't expecting there to be as many as before.

"Er… I tried… some, sir." Snape snorted in disbelief and again Dumbledore held up his hand to stop him. "But I didn't make much progress, I'm afraid." He paused before adding, "It's just that I'm not sure how to know it's working."

Dumbledore nodded, apparently contemplating something, and then his head snapped up, he seemed to understand something. "I'd like you to continue your Occlumency training this term. Professor Snape and I will work together with you. With sufficient progress we may be able to be finished by the Winter Holiday." Snape looked absolutely livid at the suggestion of his involvement and was giving Dumbledore a maniacal glare, but he stayed silent.

Harry wasn't too keen on it himself, especially seeing Snape's reaction, and decided to make it known to the Headmaster. "Do I have to, sir?" Harry had to try, but he wasn't expecting that he would be let out of it easily. He was not mistaken.

Dumbledore seemed to be choosing his response carefully and took on a somber look as he replied. "I can't force you, Harry. Ultimately the choice lies with you, but I still believe it to be of the utmost importance that you learn to close your mind to the possibility of outside influence."

"Including yours," Harry asked with a sly grin. A year ago he would never had dared to say something like that to the Headmaster, even under the guise of a joke, but his lingering resentment about the prior year loosened his tongue.

To Harry's surprise Dumbledore laughed loudly. "Yes, even mine. Always make up your own mind, Harry, even if you have no reason to distrust someone. It gives you the proper perspective and with whatever it is you do you'll do so willingly and put that much more effort into it."

"Okay, then, sir," Harry replied. "When should we meet?"

"I think we should wait a week or two and allow you to settle into a routine with your classes first. I think you'll find sixth year to be more challenging than your fifth, though a bit less hectic perhaps. Severus or I will set something up with you then. For now I suggest you head up to your dormitory. Professor Ben will be happy to escort you, I'm sure." With this he motioned to Professor Ben and the man snapped to attention and took his place by Harry's side. They took their leave of Professors Dumbledore and Snape and walked side by side toward Gryffindor tower.

"I really don't need an escort," Harry said as they exited the Great Hall. "I know the way."

"I'm sure you do," Ben replied. "But I suspect Dumbledore suggested this more for my benefit. I'm not too familiar with the castle yet. Dumbledore knows my habit of getting lost in this place. Plus this way Mr. Filch won't get after you for wandering the halls on your first day back."

As if she knew who they were speaking of Mrs. Norris chose to make herself known at that moment, stepping out from behind a suit of armor and directly into Harry's way. Harry slowed his pace to avoid treading on the bothersome feline, but fell back in place as he realized what Ben had said.

"Oh, you didn't attend Hogwarts as a student, then?"

Ben seemed to stiffen slightly before answering. "No, I didn't. I've been abroad most of my life. Mostly North America, but Hogwart's is known by reputation even there. I was quite happy to be accepted here for my first appointment."

"So you've never taught before?" Harry asked as they passed a large tapestry depicting one of the goblin wars. Harry normally would have taken the passageway that was hidden behind it, but he didn't want to confuse Professor Ben's sense of direction, plus he was grateful for this opportunity to question the DADA professor on a somewhat personal level and was happy for the extra time.

"I've done my student teaching, and lead a few night school classes, but I haven't yet had a chance to teach classes of my own. I am, of course, certified to teach Defense if that's what you're worried about." Harry detected a note of anger in the Professor's voice and was quick to pick up on the implications.

"It's not that I… I didn't mean to… I know you're qualified…," he stammered before getting straight to the crux of the matter. "I'm not Snape."

Ben chuckled lightly. "Heard some of that did you? I admit it is difficult for me, hearing his doubts, but he has only the student's welfare in mind. And by the way, it's _Professor Snape_."

"Yes, sir," Harry replied bowing his head to acknowledge the new Professor's authority, but it was a only a perfunctory showing of proper manners. Harry did not like Snape enough to worry about titles and names. "It may not be his concern for the students, though. You've heard he's applied for the Defense position in the past?"

"Yes, I had heard, but the man has an extraordinary talent for potions. You are very lucky to have him. Hogwarts is known worldwide for producing exceptional students in the field of potions, and I have little doubt that Professor Snape is the cause of it. Now which way do we turn?"

Harry started them in the proper direction and they walked the last few hallways in silence. Harry stopped in front of the painting of the Fat Lady and gave Professor Ben quick directions on how to return to the Defense wing. He watched as the new professor disappeared around the corner before turning to the Fat Lady to give her the password, then realized he didn't know it. He had been the last student to leave the Great Hall and had forgotten to ask Ron or Hermione before they left. With a sigh Harry sat on the floor of the cold stone hallway hoping that it wouldn't be long before someone would chance through to let him in.


	10. Chapter Ten

**I've never had so many reviews for one chapter before. You're leaving me blushing. Review responses are at the end. I apologize for the lateness of this chapter, but I was on vacation and had no computer access. It's a rather long chapter to make up for it, though it doesn't reveal Dawn's secret the way I hoped it would. That willhave to wait for the next chapter. **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the like are owned by JK Rowling, while Dawn, the red witch, the monk, and Professor Ben are ideas owned by JossWhedon.**

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Hermione was the first to come out. "There you are," she said. "Been waiting long?"

"No, just a few minutes," Harry replied, glad that it hadn't taken long for someone to find him.

"The password is 'Norbert' by the way."

"Cute," Harry said, somewhat sarcastically. "Who came up with that one?" Hermione's only response was an exaggerated smile before she turned and led him to a secluded corner of the common room where she and Ron had apparently been waiting. Ron waved a quick greeting as Harry came closer.

"What'd Dumbledore want," he asked, not even giving Harry a chance to sit down.

"Ronald Weasley," Hermione began. "There are such things as manners, not that you'd know. At least let him get seated." Harry smirked, happy to see it hadn't taken long for the two of them to fall back into old habits. He sighed as he took his seat and his two best friends looked at him expectantly.

"What?"

"Are you going to answer my question or not?" Ron earned a glare from Hermione for the phrasing of the question, but she was just as curious.

"Not," Harry answered simply, laughing in amusement at the astonishment on their faces. Just then they were joined by Ginny and Dawn.

"Hey guys. What's up," Dawn asked. She didn't wait for a response before turning to Harry. "Why were you late to dinner?"

"My question first," Ron interrupted. "I have dibs."

"You can't call dibs on Harry," Dawn said. "He's my brother and I've known him longer than you."

"Yeah, but I asked first," Ron replied. "Besides I'm in the same year as him."

"That doesn't matter. I'm blood relation." Their argument was quickly interrupted by Hermione.

"Perhaps we should let Harry speak now," she said. Turning to Harry she told him to start with whatever he wanted.

"Well," Harry began, "Simple things first. All that Dumbledore wanted was to talk about starting up Occlumency again. Both him and Snape will be teaching me this time."

"Well I for one am glad," Hermione said. "Although Professor Snape should never have let you out of it last year."

"Yeah," Harry replied half-heartedly. He didn't want to get into that old argument again. "I also met the new Defense professor, Professor Ben. He seems really nice."

"What did you find out about him?" Ginny asked. So far she had been rather quiet.

"Not much," Harry said. "He's from America, apparently, so he had never seen Hogwarts before. This is his first real teaching appointment, although he has some experience in it, or so he says. Snape isn't happy about it though. He got in a big fight with Dumbledore in front of me. He was going on about how we were at war and how he thought putting a brand new teacher in charge of our education was going to get us killed. Dumbledore was calm, as he always is, and just blew him off."

Now that Ron's question was answered Dawn wasted no time in asking her question. "So why were you late to dinner?"

"I just needed some space," Harry lied. "Hermione and Ron were pushing me about the prophecy and I needed a minute alone." He was about to give the two of them a harsh look, but held it off as he saw the look of contrite sorrow on Ron's face. Hermione's face showed none of it. She just looked indifferent.

"And your rib," Dawn asked.

"Hurt it when I jumped out of the carriage. I think I bruised it. It'll be fine in a day or two." Harry hoped they wouldn't have any more questions. He didn't really want to get into a long discussion, at least not until he learned more about what happened. There was something the monk had said, something about Dawn, that had unnerved him and he wanted to be especially cautious. He hadn't planned it; the lie crossed his lips before he even thought about it. He just needed time to think.

Something that Hermione, at least, wasn't about to give him.

"Now don't get angry, Harry," she said cautiously, "but I think you're hiding something." He winced, and though he tried to cover it, Hermione noticed. "Now I'm sure you're hiding something. What is it?"

Dawn glared at her brother. "You don't trust us! After all that's happened, all that we've done together and you still try to cut me out!" She was obviously unhappy and stood from her seat on the floor. "That's just… Fine," she yelled. "You don't want me around anyway!" And with that she turned and stomped off towards the girl's dorm.

Ginny stood as well. "Umm… I'm going to go see if I can help." Looking at Ron she said "Fill me in later" before following after Dawn and leaving the three of them alone.

"So what is it, Harry?" Hermione asked. "What are you hiding?"

"Well…," he said, "There_was_ something… Remember that man in the brown robes? The one we kept seeing on Diagon Alley?"

"Yes," Hermione said while Ron only nodded.

"He was being attacked, beaten really, by this woman, a witch wearing all red robes. I tried to help him and she… she was good. At first I caught her by surprise, I think, and hit her with a 'Stupefy' square in the back. It was like she didn't even feel it. Then she turned on me." After a pause he added, "She's the one who hurt my rib."

"Did she say who she was," Hermione asked.

"No, but I asked the monk after she left and he said…" Here Harry was interrupted by Ron.

"A Monk! No wonder he wore such weird clothes!"

"Yeah," Harry said before continuing. "All he said was 'She cannot be named.' One of them said something about the Order."

"You think she's with You-Know-Who," Ron asked.

"I don't think so. She kept going on about a key. 'I want my key,' she kept saying. I don't know what that was about. She seemed to think the monk had it."

"So, how did you get away," Hermione asked.

"That's the weird thing. She started just shouting all this stuff and none of it made sense. Something about 'the mortal coil' and how 'horrible it was being human.' Then she just disappeared."

"She apparated," Hermione asked.

"No, she just kind of-" Harry was having trouble finding the right words, "collapsed- I guess- into this white light and was gone."

"Hmmm," Hermione said.

"Uh-oh," Ron said, "I know that sound. We're going to be spending a lot of time in the library, aren't we?"

"Of course. We have to find out what's going on. If it involves Voldemort in any way we can't be caught off guard. You said the monk just said 'She cannot be named?' There wasn't any thing else?"

"That's all he said. I didn't even get_his_ name." Harry didn't tell them what the monk had said about Dawn. It wasn't important for them to know and he wasn't about to get Dawn involved if he didn't have to. The farther away she was from it all the safer she would be. Harry decided he'd had just about all he could take for one evening, so stretching widely he said "Well, if there's no further questions I'm going to bed."

"No, I should go, too," Hermione said. "Classes start bright and early tomorrow."

"Ugh! Don't remind me!" Ron added before he too headed up the stairs toward the comfort of his Hogwart's four poster bed.

Harry was the last one in his dorm to wake in the morning. Ron was just coming out of the shower when he noticed Harry was awake.

"Hey, I was just going to wake you. Sleep well"  
"Yeah," Harry said. "Although Dean and Seamus woke me when they came in. Can they be any louder?"

Ron replied with a knowing smile before saying, "Come on. We have to be down to breakfast soon."

Harry quickly jumped into the shower and got himself dressed. When he finished he saw that Ron had preceded him down to breakfast so he walked through the halls as quickly as he could. He entered the Great Hall just as Professor McGonnagal was passing out the class schedules.

"Double Potions first thing!" Harry said when he saw his schedule. "That's murder!"

"Oh, it won't be so bad," Hermione told him. "We have Defense class this afternoon. It will be interesting to be one of the first to meet the new professor. Of course, some of us met him yesterday." The last part was directed at Harry and with a bit of feigned jealousy, which Harry simply smiled at, but his thoughts weren't on Professor Ben at the moment.

"Has anyone seen Dawn," Harry asked. "I didn't see her when I came in."

"She's still mad at you, mate," Ron said. "She was down with Ginny earlier. I think she was avoiding you."

"Oh," was all Harry said, feeling dejected. Hermione tried to set him at ease.

"She'll get over it. She thinks you were specifically excluding her, but I told her that you weren't going to tell us either until we twisted your arm about it. She'll be at lunch, I'm sure."

Hermione spoke with such confidence that Harry couldn't help but be appeased for a bit and went back to brooding over the prospect of Potions first thing in the morning. Soon enough Ron and Hermione were gathering their things and entreating Harry to hurry along. At their prodding he cut breakfast short and followed them down to the dungeons.

Snape's first lesson of the year was much like all the others. He had added a rather dull speech on the dangers of the potions they would be brewing and the need for all students to be especially careful this year. Harry noticed Snape's eyes were on him throughout much of the speech and knew that Snape was directing it specifically at him. After the speech was finished, Snape waved his wand over the blackboard and a potion recipe appeared.

It was one of the hardest Potions they had ever had to make, and though Harry took special care to follow the instructions exactly, his sample failed to react at the third step. Professor Snape, of course, did not let the opportunity slip by unnoticed.

"Mr. Potter," he said, leaning over Harry's workstation so as to appear more threatening. He made sure to speak loud enough so the entire class could hear him. "Perhaps this class is too advanced for you? You might do better by repeating your fifth year studies." Draco Malfoy was silently laughing, while a few of the Ravenclaws were looking angry for the distraction. "Tell me, Mr. Potter, exactly where you went wrong."

Harry read over the instructions again, but had followed the instructions exactly and could not find where he may have gone wrong. "I don't know, sir."

"Read step number 5," Snape prompted.

"I haven't made it that far yet," Harry said, then quickly added "sir."

"Typical Gryffindor behaviour," Snape said. "Plunging in without first assessing the situation. Read step 5 aloud, so the entire class can hear."

"Add the root of motherwort to the mixture. Remember at no time should the potion come in contact with water. Even the slight vapor from exhaled breath can cause the mixture to lose its potency." Harry's shoulders slumped and he let out a loud sigh. He hadn't been watching his breath and that was what caused his first potion to fail. "Yes, exactly," Snape said before using a vanishing charm on Harry's worthless mixture. "Ten points from Gryffindor. You may start again. This time," he added, "follow every step exactly. That is all."

Snape strode to the front of the room leaving Harry seething. "I did follow every step," he said to Ron, who was working next to him. Ron simply shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Snape, who was watching them intently, before turning back to his own potion.

Harry managed relatively well on his second attempt and came up with a potion he thought might be passable. It wasn't the best looking potion in the class, but it was by far not the worst. He hadn't forgotten Snape's sabotage from last year and made sure to add an indestructible charm to his sample. He returned from placing his potion on Snape's desk feeling that he had in some way redeemed himself.

Harry was gathering his things in preparation to leave when Snape's voice again interrupted him. "Mr. Potter. See me before you leave today."

"Yes, sir," he replied, unhappy that his lunch would be delayed. He bade Ron and Hermione goodbye and taking his things with him turned to Snape's desk.

Snape kept him waiting for some time, apparently more interested in the article he was reading in_The Potions Post_ than he was in whatever he had asked Harry to stay for. Harry was afraid Snape wanted to tell him there had been a mistake and he wouldn't be allowed to take NEWT level potions after all. He waited patiently, however, trying to give no indication of his agitated state of mind. Snape finally closed his paper and rummaged through the top drawer of his desk before pulling out a thin book which he then handed to Harry.

"Meditation and Levitation: A Guide to the Inner Magic In All Of Us," Harry read off the cover. "What's this for?"

Snape scoffed before saying, "Even you should be able to figure that out. The Headmaster is of the opinion that it will help with your Occlumency training. You may try some of the exercises if you like, but I expect them to be too much for you. The Headmaster was quite insistent, however. That is the school's copy, Potter, I expect it returned in the same condition it was lent."

"Yes, sir," Harry said by way of acknowledgement, and seeing Snape motion towards the door he wasted no time in heading to the Great Hall for lunch.

Ron and Hermione were already eating when Harry arrived, though they seemed to be waiting for him. To his surprise he saw Dawn seated opposite them and figured now we be as good a time as any to apologize for last night. Before he could say anything, though, Hermione accosted him.

"What did Professor Snape want with you?"

"Here," he said, handing her the book. "It's supposed to help with my Occlumency." Turning to grab some chicken from the platter before him he added, "You can look at it if you want to," well aware that she had already finished the first page. He then turned his attention to Dawn.

"Hi, sis," he said, and received a cool glare in response. She apparently wanted him to suffer. "Look, about last night… I just didn't want anyone to worry about anything. It's not like I was trying to keep you in the dark specifically, I was trying to keep everybody out of it.

"Yeah well it never stopped you before," she said. "Dawn's too young. Dawn can't know about the Basilisk! Dawn can't know about the Dementors! Dawn can't know about the dragons. You never let me help you!"

Harry wasn't surprised at the outburst, but _was_ somewhat surprised that she had remembered not to raise her voice and get everyone around them suspicious. He answered her in the only way it had worked for him in the past. "You're right. You're older than I was when I first faced Voldemort for the Philosopher's Stone. I was trying to protect you, but there are some things I won't be able to protect you from. I'm sorry."

He then gave her and Ginny a quick run-down of what he had told the others after they left. After hearing his story Dawn seemed placated enough, and Harry knew that come dinnertime it would be as if the argument had never happened. He then tried to lighten the mood and asked about Dawn's morning.

"Oh it was great," she said, her eyes lighting up. "We had Defense class first thing. The new professor's really nice. We spent most of the class just talking. He told us about living in America and asked us about what we had already learned. He said he's going to put together a course plan based on the 'weaknesses of our prior education.' It was really good."

Harry smiled throughout Dawn's little speech. She could be quite talkative when she was excited about something and it was cute the way she quoted the new professor. "Got a little crush on him I see," he said in manner of good natured ribbing, which gained him a punch on the arm. "Good thing you can't reach all the way across the table or that might have hurt." At that comment Dawn stuck out her tongue.

The rest of lunch was enjoyable and Harry was sorry to have to return to class. Transfiguration with McGonnagal was first and then Defense to finish the day. Harry was actually glad for the opportunity to see his head of house, he had a question he wanted to ask her, although the prospect of the lesson itself wasn't very appealing.

It turned out to be better than Harry had hoped, although his blood boiled when Ron pointed out who was sitting a few chairs behind them. "Malfoy," he cried in exasperation. "I never thought his grades would be good enough!"

Ron just shook his head in similar bewilderment and there was silence for a moment before asking. "Do you think McGonnagal will notice if I transfigure him into a clock?" Of course it was her stern voice that broke through to him at that exact moment.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley. You may not like all of your fellow students but that is no reason not to be polite to them in your classes… And outside of the classroom I may add."

Although Ron was a bit upset at first, the loss of five points was countered by the points he, Harry, and Hermione earned throughout the class. By the end of the lesson they were well into the black, even if including the points Harry had lost them during Potions that morning. When McGonnagal dismissed her students Harry signaled to Ron and Hermione to stay behind while he asked his question. He then waited for the room to empty and made his way to the Professor.

"You wanted to speak with me, Mr. Potter," she asked on seeing him still in the room.

"Yes, ma'am," he began. "I wondered if you know how I was allowed into the Advanced Potions class when I wasn't able to make the 'O' on the exam?"

She sighed sharply before looking straight at him. "I wasn't going to tell you," she said, "but I'm sure you'll find out sooner or later. I did a rather large favor for Professor Snape, one that was against my every inclination, on condition that he allow you to take the class. He was very reluctant, but agreed to it in the end."

"Oh," Harry said. Somehow it seemed too simple, like there should have been more to it than that, but he did find it logical. Harry was very grateful and made a mental note to be sure to do something especially nice for the deputy headmistress. "Thank you, Professor," he said aloud before he would miss the opportunity and forget to do it later.

"Yes, well… You're welcome, Mr. Potter. Just be sure not to make me regret my decision," she said with a light twinkle in her eye.

"I won't," Harry said automatically before another thought struck him. "What was the favor?"

Instead of answering him she said "Don't you have another class where you need to be," and Harry knew that she wasn't going to tell him. He gave her a large smile before saying his goodbye and heading toward the Defense wing.

Hermione and Ron were waiting just outside the door. "Malfoy," Hermione said as soon as they were out of earshot of the Transfiguration classroom. "That was the favor."

"What," Harry asked, turning to her.

"Don't you see, Harry," Ron answered for her. "He didn't make the grade. McGonnagal took Malfoy in Advanced Transfiguration on condition that Snape take you in Advanced Potions." Hermione gave Ron a glare for interrupting her but let it slide.

"Oh. That makes sense, now," Harry said. "I was wondering what sort of favor McGonnagal could do for Snape and wasn't coming up with anything pleasant. For either of them."

Both he and Ron laughed, though Hermione seemed to try not to. "Do you think his chest hair is greasy, too," Ron said suddenly, causing Hermione to abandon any attempt at stifling her laughter.

"Actually wasn't what I was thinking about," Harry said, which caused even more laughter. The racket earned the three of them bewildered stares when they entered the DADA classroom.

"What's so funny?" Neville asked when they chose their seats, but that just brought on another wave of laughter.

"I'll tell you later," Ron managed to say between the chuckles and guffaws. The new professor came into the room and the three had to work to calm themselves down. Luckily they managed before the man began speaking.

"Okay, listen up, please," he began lamely. Harry noticed that the new professor didn't seem comfortable in front of the group as his voice was quavering and he was shifting nervously from one foot to the other. He had to try a couple of times to get the class's attention. "So let me ask you one question. Does anybody know how much a polar bear weighs?"

There were a couple of snickers and nervous giggles, but not even Hermione would answer the question.

"It's enough to break the ice." The class laughed. "I'm Professor Ben, as Dumbledore announced last night. I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor… Well, obviously," he added with a bit of self deprecating humor. "Well done, Ben. Your first day and you've already got them thinking you're an idiot." Addressing the class he added. "I did the same thing this morning, too. Well, as I don't know any of you, and none of you know me, we'll just go around the room and tell a little about ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Professor Ben. You can just call me Professor Ben, I know many of you have been taught that it's rude to address adults by their first names, but I don't mind it. I like it actually."

He paused to give the class time to catch up, although nobody was taking notes. Harry noticed that the new Professor calmed down once he started talking. "So about me… I come from America. This is my first teaching job, but I have plenty of experience in Defense. Now, we'll go around the room, and you tell me a little about yourself and I'll ask you each a question about your studies then you can ask me whatever you wish. Okay? Good."

As they started the round robin, Ron turned to Harry and whispered "Do you think this means no homework?"

"Either that or 'Write a paragraph on what you did for summer vacation.'" Ron just gave Harry a quizzical look. "Muggle thing." Ron shrugged and at Hermione's glare he went back to try and pay attention to Ernie Macmillan's pompous speech.

Despite Ernie's self important monologue, it was the most interesting Defense class any of them had seen since the imposter Moody had taught them about Unforgivables. What seemed to be an asinine and uninspired exercise actually did help them learn about each other. Professor Ben answered question after question, many of them were about America and the things he did there. He had actually participated in several demon hunts where groups of wizards would try to find demons that were causing problems and relocate them. The students asked him about American customs and phrases while he asked them about all things British. He asked them about their studies and seemed quite impressed with the information they already knew, and was especially impressed with the number of students that could produce a Patronus. Harry was proud of them, too, especially after Professor Ben said he didn't believe them and Hermione sent her otter-shaped Patronus after him, startling him off the edge of the desk where he was sitting. Miraculously, his robes stayed perfectly white.

"That's wonderful," Professor Ben said after they had finished the game. "I can see some strengths and weaknesses already. You're all very strong in theory. No need to study any more of that." A loud cheer burst forth from the class at that announcement. "Yes, well. You're also quite skilled at dealing with Dark Creatures, the smaller ones anyway. The things I think we'll focus on this term are physical defense and duelling. The basics are there, but with a bit more study we'll have some excellent duellers in this class."

Neville took the opportunity to ask another question. "Sir, what do you mean by physical defense?"

Ben came towards him and stood directly in front of Neville's desk. "Hand me your wand please," he said kindly. After Professor Ben took the wand he pointed it straight at Neville's chest and said "I'm about to use the Leg-Locker Curse on you. What do you do?"

Neville looked to his left and his right, but Ben stopped him. "It's just you and me, no one can help you. What do you do?"

Neville made a weak lunge for his wand that Ben easily avoided, grabbing Neville's arm and twisting it behind so that Neville was forced to bend backwards to lessen the pain. "That was one form of physical defense, now here's another. Grab me here."

"Here?" Neville tried, but he still looked like he was in pain and wanted to cry uncle any minute.

"Not quite. Like this," Professor Ben said repositioning Neville's arm. "Now pull up, hard."

Neville did as he was told and Professor Ben lost his grip on Neville's arm before crashing to the floor. Hermione gasped and several other students looked stunned, but Professor Ben was smiling as he stood up and handed the wand back to Neville. "Excellent, Neville. Ten points to Gryffindor. You see, a wand is only one line of defense. We will be learning many others throughout this year." Just then the bell rang signaling the end of class and the new Professor released them with no homework. Ron's large grin threatened to cover his entire face as he, Harry and Hermione walked out of class together.

"No Homework! Can you believe our luck," he asked Harry excitedly, not waiting for an answer. "And that move he used on Neville? I can't wait to try that. If all our Defense classes are like this it'll be a breeze."

Harry was thinking much along the same lines and already coming up with scenarios where such knowledge would be useful.

"And all that stuff about America," Ron continued talking. "I never knew they flip the bird with only one finger. Weird."

"I didn't know that either," Hermione said.

After an expectant silence Harry added, "Oh, I did. Dawn and I use it all the time. Makes it easier to get away with around the Dursleys."

And so, chatting merrily, the three Gryffindors made their way to dinner, relieved to have finally finished the first day of classes.

* * *

**LuckyShamrock: Thank you so much. That was wonderful to find first thing in my mailbox in the morning.I did a lot of planning on this before starting to write and I think it shows. I am very proud of it and am glad that you like it, too.**

**The Cardboard Moon: Got it in one! Although if you don't know Dawn's story I'm sure it's rather confusing.**

**ChibiChibi: I like your questions, but as you guessed, you'll have to wait to find out. I actually thought it was a rather obvious way to do a crossover, but apparently not too many people have done it this way. I'm glad it's keeping your interest.**

**Jackie: Thank you for your compliments. Characterization is important to me and I'm glad you think I'm doing a good job. I really don't care for stories where Hermione is all shallow or Draco is suddenly kind and nice "just because I said so." As for the two-fingered thing... Damn, I hate when that kind of stuff happens, although I tried to kind of explain it in this chapter. Anything like that happens in the future, though, you'll have to live with ;)**

**laffinpebbles: You don't remember who Ben was! Oh well that's okay. You'll understand eventually. Think fifth season's big bad. Or just wait it out in this story, but that doesn't come for a while, yet.**

**gabrieldarke: Sorry, the scoobies won't be appearing directly. There's no reason for them to show up that wouldn't be forced and contrived. Besides, Buffy has no relation to Dawn in this fic so it just wouldn't be natural. There will be more of Dawn's thoughts and a little bit of her POV, but I developed this more as a Harry Potter story so the focus is on him. I do have a few things planned for Dawn, though, that can only work from her focus, so you will see some. Thank you for your input!**

**Anne: Thank you for your comments on the exposition and tying up loose ends. I thought it dragged a bit, but I'm glad it's been enjoyed, although I set myself upfor inconsistencies when HBP comes out next month. I don't mind that you didn'treview each chapter, I do it the same way myself. As for the relationships...that won't be the main focus of the story, just a side thing, much like Buffy and Riley in 5th season (though Luna won't be joining the army and heading off to the jungle halfway through.) So it shouldn't spoil it too much for you.**

**MoonAngel247: See my comment to gabrieldarke about Dawn's thoughts. Thanks for your comments, I hope this chapter is okay, but it didn't cover as much as I wanted it to. I'm working on Ch. 11 now, though, so it won't be long.**

**marykaitlyn: Soon enough for you? I just finished it up before I saw your comment. And I love how you call it 'bloody brilliant.' That's a real ego booster. Thanks!**


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Just a quick note. I plannedthe wholeof this story before Half Blood Prince came out, so it is set directly after Order of the Phoenix and while I will try and incorporate some of HBP into the story, there will be variations. In other words - this story is not and will not be Half Blood Prince compliant.**

**I also want to give a shout out to my two reviewers from last chapter - sf-former-mk, and Lillian Rigual. Thank you for your kind words. I hope to live up to them.**

* * *

The rest of the week progressed as usual. Snape was still horrible to Harry in potions, and from what Dawn said she wasn't any better off. Defense was going quite well, the new professor was well liked by all the students even the Slytherins were happy with the appointment. Pansy Parkinson had been overheard complimenting his technique, though Hermione seemed to think she liked him more for his looks than anything else. Overall Harry was enjoying his sixth year much more than he had his fifth.

He hadn't forgotten about the book Professor Snape had given him. It was full of meditation techniques and ways to clear your mind, and though Harry felt hokey doing some of them, he did try. The problem was that every time the instructions included "sit cross-legged and…" images of long-bearded Indian fellows wearing turbans popped into his head. By itself that wouldn't have been so bad, but the long beard reminded him of Dumbledore and his mind kept flashing him pictures of Dumbledore, bare chested and in a turban, sitting on a flying carpet like a genie in some bad Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and Harry would break up laughing at the thought.

There was one technique Harry was especially anxious to try. It had been developed by a French wizard named Cloutier and was more involved than many of the other techniques. It was called_tirer la couverture_, which the book translated to 'pull the curtain back,' and it enabled the user to go to a higher plane of conciousness and "see" spells. Harry thought it could be used to tell if a vision was real or if it was one Voldemort had planted, and was quite excited about the technique, but when he mentioned it to Hermione she wasn't very keen on the idea.

"That's very advanced magic, Harry," she said. "Cloutier was a legend in his time. Besides, I don't know how helpful it would be even if you were able to pull it off. It creates an 'altered state,' so you can see things you wouldn't normally see, and a very specific ritual has to be performed. It's not the type of thing you can do all the time, or at a moment's notice."

"I still need to try," Harry insisted. "Anything that can help me keep Voldemort from planting visions in my head. I've been practicing concentration drills and I know I'm close. This might be just what I need. Please…"

They continued on in this vein for quite a while, Ron helping Harry where he could, and eventually Hermione did agree to help, although she had reservations.

"Well, you're obviously going to do it anyway and I might as well help you where I can," she said. "But you owe me."

"I know," Harry said, wondering just what she would want when she called in the favor.

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Hermione wasn't really needed, though. When it came right down to it, there was little_anyone _could do to help. Sure, there were certain herbs to acquire, and there was the ritual pouring of red dragon sand, but the trance itself was something only Harry could perform. Ron insisted on staying in the room to make sure Harry would be okay, but Hermione explained that the presence of another person would make it more difficult for Harry to achieve the altered state. Eventually Ron gave in, but only after announcing that he would go no further than the common room. Harry was a little annoyed at Ron's reaction, didn't he think he could perform a spell by himself, but was glad for the support and felt a little more secure knowing he would be just downstairs.

Unfortunately, when Saturday came around and Harry finally had time to do the ritual, he found Neville, Dean, and Seamus already occupying the dorm room.

"Hey, Neville," Harry called. "Didn't you have something you wanted to show Dean and Seamus?"

Neville didn't get the hint. "No. Nothing."

"Remember? You were telling me this morning that you wanted to take them out and show them that… thing."

"What thing?" Harry visibly deflated. Neville could be rather thick sometimes. Luckily Seamus wasn't.

"What's going on, Harry?" he asked. "You got a girl coming over or something?"

A thread! Thank you, Seamus. "Er…," Harry said, not wanting to have to go into details and come up with a convincing lie.

"That's alright!" Seamus said as he rounded up Dean and Neville and started towards the door. "I've got an essay I need to finish, anyway. Just remember to return the favor sometime." He gave Harry a quick wink and dragged the other two Gryffindors out the door, leaving a thankful Harry in solitude.

"Okay, now what do I do," he asked himself aloud, though he already knew the answer. Ron had helped him memorize the steps to the ritual - he could not allow a single step to go wrong. The first thing Harry needed to do was clear a space on the floor. He then set up two platforms for burning herbs, one to the left of where he'd be sitting and one to the right, and placed the herb mixture on the pedestal. He then took the red dragon sand, thoughtfully procured for him by Hermione, and poured a circle around himself, being sure that he made only one complete circuit and left no gaps. He then lit the herbs, sat in the center of his creation, and, just like it said in the book, focused on his breathing.

Harry breathed, and waited, and waited, and waited. It seemed to take forever for the spell to kick in, and Harry at first feared it wouldn't work. Hermione had told him that if there was any part of him that didn't think it would work, it definitely wouldn't, so he banished those fears, ridiculing them out of himself. He continued to focus on his breathing, the feel of his skin, anything to keep his mind occupied on himself. Hours passed, and eventually Harry began to feel the ritual kicking in.

The first thing he noticed was that all sound had diminished. When the ritual started there had been the typical castle noises - people coming and going, games being played on the grounds, doors slamming and whatnot, but he no longer heard any of that. He opened his eyes and noticed for the first time that it was dark outside. It had been light when he started. How had he missed the sunset? Then, as he turned his head he noticed that his vision was distinctly different. It seemed that objects were out of focus, though they weren't exactly blurred, he could see them clearly enough, but objects seemed to trail behind themselves, like it took a moment for things to catch up to his perception of them. He began to walk around, slowly at first, but as he became used to the sensation he was able to walk somewhat normally.

The first place Harry went to was his nightside table. There was a picture of him, Hermione, and Ron, taken one day at the Burrow, and he picked it up to study it closer. It was his favorite photo of the three of them, taken just after the Quidditch World Cup before his fourth year. The three of them were sitting on a bench in front of the pond, smiling and waving inside the frame. He remembered Dawn being angry that he didn't want her in the picture, but wait… That's not right. Dawn wasn't there, then. Dawn was… Where was she?

Harry replaced the picture and went to his dresser where he kept a picture of Dawn. It was familiar to him, he was standing behind her, wrapping his arms around her, Sirius behind them, but the picture changed while he was holding it. Dawn faded, and left him holding a picture of only himself and Sirius. Slowly the picture changed again and it was back to the way he remembered it.

"What?" he said aloud. It was the first word he had spoken since the trance had taken effect, but he wasn't too surprised at the change to his voice. It was as if he was hearing it spoken from far away, and all he was able to pick up was the echo of his words. He focused on the picture again, and once more the image of Dawn flickered and disappeared before reoccupying its space in the frame.

Harry's heart started beating faster, partly in fear and partly in anger. What was going on? He dug out the photo album Hagrid had made for him after his first year. There were a couple of pictures in the very back that contained Dawn in them. Again, just like in the photo on his nightside table, Dawn's image faded before slowly reappearing again. It happened in every picture involving Dawn - a couple of them even showed a pregnant Lily Potter holding an infant Harry, and in these Lily was the one who changed, it was as if she had never been pregnant at all.

Harry slammed the book closed and bolted for the common room. He had to see Ron and Hermione. Maybe they would know what it meant.

As he walked the stairs with difficulty, because of the distortion in his vision, he saw that the common room was mostly empty except for a few second years and his friends. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were sitting in the chairs in front of the fire, but it wasn't until he came up to them that he noticed Dawn there as well.

"Harry," she said, and again it was like hearing an echo, as if Dawn wasn't standing right in front of him. "Harry. You don't look right. What in the world have you been doing?" She asked it with a look of concern on her face, and a little bit of anger, but Harry could only watch as she herself faded in and out of his view. Her books, her bag, everything that belonged to her disappeared as well. Harry knew at once what was going on.

"You're not my sister," he said. Someone had changed his memories, made him think he had a sister, when really she was no more related to him than Voldemort. Voldemort! Of course. He was the one who had done it! That's why he hadn't attacked anything over the summer. This 'sister'… this_thing_ standing in front of him wasn't even real. It was all fake, his memories of her, his feelings for her, none of it was real. Hell, not even she was real. And Ron and Ginny, and Hermione? They had to be under the spell, too.

Suddenly the world snapped back into focus. The trance ended.

"Yeah," Dawn said. "Like I even wanted to be related to your nasty…" She was suddenly interrupted by Harry running forward and pinning her arms. "Ow! What are you doing?"

"What are you," he asked

"Get off me!"

"You want to hurt me?"

"Let go of me, you freak," she yelled. Ron and Hermione got up to help her, Ginny seemed to be too shocked by Harry's behavior to do much of anything.

"You deal with me," Harry said, shaking her as he did, and putting a bit of force behind it.

"Ron? Hermione?" Dawn pleaded for help.

"You stay away from my friends!" Harry shouted. He pushed her then, and she flipped over the edge of the chair, landing hard on her back. She appeared to be dazed, but Harry knew she would recover shortly. "Don't let her go," Harry ordered Ron and Hermione, before storming out the portrait hole.

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Once in the hall Harry was at a loss for what to do. Who could he go to? Dawn had everybody under her spell, even the headmaster. He started for the Entrance Hall, figuring it at least gave him someplace to go. Then he remembered the monk's parting words earlier that week. That man knew something! But how would he find him? Then faintly, from behind him, Harry heard his name being called. He ducked behind the nearest tapestry and watched as both Ron and Hermione went running by. They apparently had left Ginny alone with Dawn. Harry was thankful they hadn't apparently spotted him and he headed for the last place he had seen the monk - Hogsmeade Orchard.

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The tunnel behind the one-eyed witch had never served Harry better. Sneaking out of Honeyduke's was a bit of a challenge as there weren't the usual crowds of Hogwart's students to blend into, but Harry made it easily enough. He exited the store quickly and stayed off the main road of the village so he wouldn't be seen and recognized. His luck stayed with him and he made it to the orchard without incident. The next step was to find the monk.

How to reach that end Harry had no idea. It had seemed simple enough, go back to the orchard and find the guy, but Harry really didn't know that much about him. He only knew he had met him once here, and seen him in Diagon Alley. The first thing he decided to do was find the place he and the witch had had their duel earlier in the week.

It took Harry longer to find than he would have thought, and he wasn't helped by the fact it was dark and the trees let in very little light. He lit the end of his wand in exasperation, and just as quickly put it out. It wouldn't do good to advertise his presence when he didn't know who all was watching.

Harry looked for the better part of an hour and hadn't been able to find the place. He started his search by wandering aimlessly, but realizing this was getting him nowhere he started again and used a more methodical approach. Walking each row and peering between the trees, Harry kept his eyes open, both on the path ahead and the trees to the side. He was nearly two-thirds of the way through the orchard when he finally found something.

What he'd found he wasn't sure, but it was magical, of that he was certain. It was apparently some sort of ball, slightly larger than a bludger, though completely smooth, and seemingly made of glass of some type. From it's center came an eerie, yellow glow. Harry could actually feel the magic in it, it filled him with the same emotion of hope and sense of uplifting as phoenix song, though this was nowhere near as strong. Unsure what to do with the object, he stuffed it inside the inner pocket of his robes, which had the added bonus of hiding the light, and continued his search.

It wasn't until he started back up that same row that Harry realized there was more to be found than just the glowing ball. He had been so distracted by his find that he hadn't really looked at the area all that closely. Now that he did he wondered how he missed it. Some of the nearby trees were charred and a couple had limbs that were completely broken. A jolt of anticipation shot through him as he realized this was the place he and the witch had fought. He immediately lit his wand and for the first time surveyed the area clearly.

The first thing he noticed were the spots on the grass where stray spells had made contact, they were similar to the marks on the trees, and typical of the marks left behind by stray spells during a battle. He also noticed a few curious holes in the ground, and he knelt for a closer look. Each was approximately the size of a knut and most went less than half a centimeter into the ground, though some were deeper than others. The earth hadn't been removed from the holes, just compacted, as if something heavy was set on it and pushed its way into the soil. Unfortunately the grass appeared to have been trimmed recently and hadn't retained any other clues that Harry could ---

He quickly spun around and had his wand at the ready. Something was making noises behind him, the sounds were soft and wheezing, it almost sounded like Parseltongue, though Harry hadn't understood any of the words. He thought about sending a stunner into the darkness, but was saved the trouble when the very thing that had been making the noise walked into the light shed by the wand. And then collapsed.

It was the monk.

"My journey is over, I think," the man said as Harry rushed to his side, kneeling by his fallen body and helping to roll him onto his back. Harry got the man into a sitting position with his back against a tree, and it was only at this point that he got a clear view of the man's face. He had been beaten, and badly. The left eye was swollen completely shut, the right seemed to be swelling to match, but the man was able to keep it open and fixed on Harry. The right arm was twisted unnaturally and there wasn't a place on the man's body that wasn't covered with dried blood. The man needed help, and quickly.

"We need to get you to Madam Pomfrey. Come on!" Harry tried pulling the man to his feet, but wasn't strong enough to do it alone. The monk wasn't helping.

"You must protect the key," the monk said, evidently in great pain. The words were coming between short and raspy breaths.

"We can protect it together," Harry said, still trying to pull the man to his feet. "Come on!"

"No," the monk said. "I am finished." Harry gave up on his efforts to get the man to stand and instead listened to what he was trying to say. Before he spoke the man seemed to collapse even further. "You must protect it now."

"The key," Harry asked. He felt the panic rising up from within him. The last thing he needed was one more thing to protect. He was already suffering under the responsibility of being the only one who could stop Voldemort, why did the key have to come to him? "Why do I have to protect it?"

"The key is… important… powerful… a portal. My Order… my brethren. We were its only keepers. Then, the… the abomination," the monk's heavily accented English was beginning to falter along with his body. "The abomination found us. We had to protect it. Many more will die… if… she finds it. We needed you to protect it… with your life." The man's breathing was shallower and more raspy now. Harry would need to ask his questions quickly.

"The 'abomination,'" Harry said, quoting the man. "Who is it? What do they have to do with Voldemort? Why is this key so important to them?"

"The abomination…," the man started, but paused as his body was racked with a heavy fit of coughing. "Voldemort does not know of her. Only my brethren… and her followers… Not many know… She is powerful; the key will make her stronger. Many have died already; more will die if you cannot stop her." The man grew silent, apparently that was all Harry would be able to get on the subject. He changed the focus of his questions. What exactly was this key he kept hearing about?

"I found this," he said, pulling out the glowing ball, "Is this the key?"

"No, that is… protection. The key is… For centuries it had no form. Energy. Pure energy. We gave it form. We gave it life." The monk rested himself a moment and Harry's panic was getting the best of him.

"Why can't_you_take care of it? Give it to the order. I'll-" He was interrupted.

"The order… My brethren… Dagon… is no more. I am the last." Harry knew his face was showing his surprise, but he didn't try to hide it. The Order this man had been referring to wasn't the Order of the Phoenix? Did that mean nobody else knew? He was the only one who_could_do it then.

"You said you gave the key form. You gave it life," Harry said aloud. His panic had begun to subside, but was being replaced with a gnawing feeling coming from the pit of his stomach. He was beginning to understand something about the key, and this something was scarier than a thousand Voldemorts combined.

"We made it… We had to… We gave it form. Made it flesh. Sent it to you…"

"Dawn," Harry said finally. The monk nodded. When he resumed talking it was with a renewed vigor.

"We needed to know Harry Potter would protect it. We knew that what Harry Potter wanted more than anything was family. We gave her her memories, we remade yours. Everything had to be moved to fit the key into place. You wanted a family. You wished for a family. We gave you your wish."

The monk seemed to expect gratitude, but Harry gave him rage. "What is she," he yelled. "You put her next to me! To my friends! What does she do! What is she!" It was all Harry could do to hold himself back and not add to the man's injuries, but his fists were clenched in anticipation.

"She doesn't know," the monk answered weakly. "She remembers nothing. All that Dawn Potter knows is she was born, she will live her life, and she will die. She can not do that without you… She needs you… She's an innocent in this."

"What is she?" Harry asked again, his rage subsiding, leaving him with only a yearning for understanding. His question was more of a plea than anything else. He really didn't expect an answer.

The monk struggled to breathe. He made a great effort to speak, and Harry had to lean close to hear the words. "Your sister… she's human."

The man seemed about to say something more, but didn't. It took Harry a moment to realize there were no more breaths. The eyes were open, and still staring at something in the distance. Harry reached up with his fingers and slowly closed them. At a loss for what to do, Harry took out his wand, transfigured a nearby tree limb into a shovel, and began to dig.

---------------------

It was late when Harry walked into the common room that night. He expected it to be empty, however, Ron and Hermione were waiting up for him, and even worse, Dawn was with them. As soon as she saw him she stood up and headed for her dormitory. There was an angry look on her face, which Harry couldn't blame her for, and though he tried to catch her eye as she brushed past him she didn't even glance his way. Instead she muttered "I wasn't bothering them," before storming up the stairs. Harry could only watch helplessly as she disappeared around the curve.

Hermione was the first to speak. "What the hell happened, Harry?" She softened before adding "And what are you doing?"

"Nothing happened," Harry said. "Brother and sister stuff." His eyes were still on the girl's staircase where Dawn disappeared.

"I don't think so, mate," Ron said. "That's never happened with any my brothers or sisters… well sister," he added after a pause.

"Guys! Just…" Harry's temper was flaring again. It had been a long day, and he didn't think he could take their questioning again.

"Harry," Hermione said. "Does this have something to do with tirer la couverture?"

"No," Harry snapped at her, and immediately felt bad about it so he tried to pull his anger into check. "It didn't work. Look, I need to see Dawn. Can you go get her for me? You know I can't go up the girl's stairs."

"Yeah. No problem," Hermione said, somewhat taken aback, and hurried off toward the dormitory. Ron cleared his throat nervously.

"Umm… I'm going to bed," he added and took off in the opposite direction.

Harry remained standing while waiting for Dawn. He supposed Hermione must be having a bit of trouble with her, the wait seemed inordinately long, but eventually he saw Dawn's familiar form slowly walking down the stairs. She didn't look at him, and went straight to her favorite chair before slouching uncomfortably and staring into the fire.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, realizing how just how lame the words sounded. Dawn wasn't appeased and she actually scoffed at his words. She waited a moment as if debating whether to speak at all, and when she did, she didn't even turn to look at him.

"You hurt my arm."

"I know. I'm sorry." God! Wasn't there another way to say that?

"Did I ever tell you about my theory," she said after a moment, "It goes where you're not really my brother. I think Mom adopted you from a shoebox full of baby howler monkeys and never told you because she was afraid it would hurt your delicate baby feelings."

She was angry, obviously, and there was venom in her words, but Harry wasn't really that hurt. He had expected worse. "That's your theory, huh," he said, walking over to sit in the chair next to her.

"Explains your fashion sense," she answered. "And your smell. Not to mention your hair."

"And Aunt Petunia," Harry asked with a smile. He wanted to see just how far she would be willing to take it.

"She didn't know," Dawn said cuttingly. Harry let out a soft sigh; he would have his work cut out for him.

"I'm really sorry," he said, noticing again just how inadequate the words were. They apparently sounded the same way to Dawn.

"Broken record much," she said, not even trying to hide her anger.

"You always do that!" Harry snapped. "You can't even take an apology! You've always been that way, ever since…" He paused. He was about to say 'ever since we were little,' but Dawn wasn't really there when he was little. Then why did he remember it? The feelings were the same, whether they had actually happened or whether the memories had been created. He had hurt Dawn unbearably, something he had promised he would never do. He didn't know what he could say to make it better. "I had a really bad day."

"Yeah, well… Join the club."

"Can I be president," Harry asked, trying to coax a smile. It didn't work.

"I'm president!" Dawn said quickly. As an afterthought she added "You can be the janitor."

Well, at least it was some form of joke. "Okay," Harry said, willing to take whatever insults she was going to throw at him. He felt he deserved it.

Harry sat quietly another moment. He wanted to put his arm around her, to somehow comfort her, but he didn't know just how far he could push it. He settled instead for the uncomfortable silence, feeling some relief that she was at least accepting his presence. She was the one who eventually broke the silence.

"Harry," she said.

"Yeah," he asked back. He was going to give her permission to ask any question she wanted. And promised her silently that he would answer.

"What happens now?"

She was scared. Of what he wasn't sure. Voldemort? Or the witch? The monk? He couldn't honestly give her reassurance, not when he didn't have any himself. He settled for complete non-committance.

"I don't know."

And with that he reached across the arm of the chair and pulled her close, planting a chaste, brotherly kiss to the part of her hair.


End file.
